A couple from Lion's Gate Drive in Steinbach wants the city to build sidewalks and pathways this year at the same time it is paving Old Tom Road. Allen and Bettie Toews suggest the city should spend the extra $700-800,000 on walkways in their area this year rather than doing it in the future at an even higher cost.

Mayor Chris Goertzen says it's not quite that simple. He explains the city only allocates $500,000 per year for paving peripheral roads and the $1 million Old Tom Road paving project will eat up two years worth of that budget. And he adds the city would rather not postpone the paving until it has enough money for walkways.

"We don't want to delay Old Tom Road only to work on having a sidewalk at the same time. Council is not going to forget about the request but, at the same time, we want to proceed with the paving of Old Tom Road."

Goertzen also notes the sidewalks budget is separate from the streets budget.

"Council sees sidewalks and regional pathways as very important. We have a different program for that and so, when we look at that program, it's about $150-200,000 a year, we're going to look at how that can be allocated so that we can connect every part of our city."

Councillor Michael Zwaagstra adds the sidewalks budget has a separate list of priorities.

"We do have a list of priorities just as we do right now for streets that are being paved an upgraded. Those are both important issues to look at but they do need to be looked at separately."