Councillors balk at walkway-funding talk

City councillors have placed a road block on a plan to spend more money on a pedestrian walkway in St. Boniface.

But the barricade is only temporary.

On Monday, council's public works committee got hung up in a 2-2 vote over a recommendation to increase the budget for the Tache Promenade, a walkway on the east side of the Red River, from $5.2 million to $10 million.

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Couns. Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan) and Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) refused to approve the additional cash, citing the city's cash crunch as well as a lack of prior disclosure of all the project's needs.

Couns. Matt Allard (St. Boniface) and committee chair Marty Morantz (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Whyte Ridge) voted in favour of the budget hike.

The report now moves to executive policy committee without a recommendation. That committee, led by the mayor, is expected to endorse the cost hike.