More being done than meets the jaded eye

By COLLIN GALLANT on June 9, 2019.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

This column has been beating the drum for a while, but there’s a heck of a lot going on in Medicine Hat these days.

Some would say that it’s spring time in Alberta, hearkening the Ian Tyson hit song, or maybe something more like Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America.”

Either way, the Hat is a happening place, and it’s been happening for a couple years at least locally where folks have grumbled for about a decade about the gridlocked, downbeat, stalled, just plain bad economy.

So marked is the difference, that whereas a new restaurant opening would have rated front-page coverage in the dark days of 2013. It’s barely a blip now. A proposal to build a downtown hotel didn’t remain top-of-mind long after the 24-hour news cycle.

Maybe we’ve been spoiled by announcements of up-sizing our marijuana plants, massive city power profits, or any number of major commercial building projects.

For several weeks now, Carry Drive Plaza has been getting its 1990s-era facade scraped off and a new one put on based on designs by a high-end Lethbridge architecture firm. It’s needed, even laudable, but just another renovation of many that’s happening in Medicine Hat.

For proof, across the street plaza owner Primaris is reworking the former Sears space and mall-anchor, the Bay, getting underway with renovations.

Commercial construction im the south end (two hotels, car dealership, new commercial strips, long-term care facility, etc.) has the place looking more like Calgary about 10 years ago.

Right near there, the Southside Events Centre – left vacant in the general mess and controversy of Casino-by-Vanshaw – has a ‘sold’ sign on it. So does the former Boston Pizza on Dunmore Road, which some Hatters certainly thought would be vacant for some time.

The city’s plan to sell off infill properties seems to be going swimmingly (more on this next week).

The only thing that seems to be lacking is new single-family home construction, and yet major new upper-end subdivisions are being planned and both First Streets are being transformed with new mansions popping up all the time.

And it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that something else is cooking under the cone of silence at city hall regarding all things economic development.

That’s the impression we get.

Business beat

A regional study of business needs and the labour market in southeastern Alberta is underway, and its mandate is to get business owners opinions on a wide array of topics centred on local government policy and business needs.

“We want to have a pointed discussion about whether we’re competitive,” said Sandra Blyth, the city’s business development officer, who says everything is up for discussion at meetings that are open with registration on June 19 and 20.

One note of correction from the earlier News report is that the Alberta Labour and Immigration ministry is providing $65,000 toward the total $122,000 budget. The remainder supplied by partners including local governments in the region.

A look ahead

A long-awaited cost containment program for the city’s parks and recreation program will be unveiled at Monday’s meeting of the public services committee. This involves the “adjusted service level” pillar of the Financially Fit budget strategy that was often described as an exercise to determine how often the grass is mowed.

100 years ago

The allies could have the Ruhr Valley and still not come close to squaring an enormous reparation payment demanded in the Treaty of Versailles, the German finance Minister announced, the News reported in June 1919.

“No one will stand in your way if you wish to come,” was the statement from Berlin, while U.S. President Woodrow Wilson declared that talks on the mater were “truly closed.”

In Ottawa, the first post-war budget saw falling revenue as wartime tariffs fell and a national debt equal to $220 per citizen.

In Medicine Hat, A.F. LePage joined the board of the Retail Merchants Association of Alberta headed by T.E. Gaetz.

Local Liberals elected eight delegates to August’s national convention – the first after the party collapsed in the 1918 election that brought in a coalition government.

Returning soldiers would qualify for interest free loans to buy land ($4,500), livestock ($2,000), and erect buildings ($1,000) under the soldier’s settlement program.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com