The City of Kamloops will be building more sidewalks and multi-use pathways, and they’ll be doing it a whole lot quicker.

As part of the 2019 Supplemental budget, councillors voted to increase spending by a $1-million each year, to reach their goal in 15 years, instead of 24.

Councillor Kathy Sinclair says these paths will be built all over Kamloops.

“Everything from extending safe walking and cycling paths in Westsyde to areas in Valleyview and the North Shore,” she said. “That’s something that a lot of us campaigned on is increasing safe walking paths.”

“You have kids walking to school, seniors who need to get around whether it’s to the grocery store or to get the mail.”

City staff were originally asking for an extra $315,000 a year to complete the projects in 20 years.

“We recognize that Kamloops really has been built for cars and that is what it is,” Sinclair added. “We’re a really spread out city but we also need to increase ways of getting around that are safe for everyone age 8 to 80.”

Currently, the city spends about $1.5-million each year on these short to medium term transportation projects.