City Notebook: Keep party politics away from municipal level, AUMA says
By COLLIN GALLANT on September 30, 2023.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant Albertans don’t want political parties to get involved in municipal politics. That’s the finding of a Janet Brow poll presented this month by Alberta Municipalities, formerly known as the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, gathered in Edmonton this week where they welcomed government officials and lobbied for more money (an addition $1 billion for infrastructure) and program changes. Research presented at the AGM finds that two thirds of Albertans prefer to see local elected officials as individual candidates versus one quarter that would prefer a party beside names on the ballot. About 80 per cent suspected voting on issues would fall to party policy, not necessarily “in the best interest of the community,” and about 70 per cent felt it would bring more divisiveness. There were more split responses about knowing where candidates fell on the issues, as well as accountability. Grains of salt, here, in that polls are not binding and Albertans tend to cherry pick. Case in point: serving Hat mayor Norm Boucher running for the federal Liberals was simply outrageous to many Hatters in 2011, but serving Brooks mayor Martin Shields winning for the Conservatives in 2015 barely caused a blink. Otherwise, party allegiance is mostly wink-wink speculation at the city level, where there does appear to be a different lens for candidates. Locally, Justin Wright was left off council in 2021, but romped to an MLA seat 18 months later in Cypress-Medicine Hat. Now, one can officially wonder what Drew Barnes’ plans are for 2025 in the city election. He who left elected politics to concentrate on other conservative advocacy efforts often pops up adjacent to the ongoing utility revolt in Medicine Hat. So, too, are several other former candidates for council, or school board, and likely a few new ones inspired to clean up city hall or have otherwise plainly declared on the “freedom” side of the conservative equation. The “Take Back Alberta” movement that claims it’s behind the wheel of the United Conservative bus says it plans to run the table with slates in the next school board and municipal elections. The UCP board elections are in early November, and columnists elsewhere are now sizing up that internal situation. Listen for not a long time and you’ll hear a lot about the left-wing mayors and kooky councils in Alberta’s major cities. Will every town in Alberta get painted with the same brush, or be subject to the same cure? Bills, bills, bills Utility bills can be a lot like that fish you caught a few years back – big, but how big really? Certainly bigger than last year, of course, but more than a few Hatters have contacted the News saying an $800 credit loosened from city reserves this month will more than make up for cost increases and in fact erase bills for several months. Fine by me, say some, but others are wondering. A new power rate offering is due Tuesday as the second part of a three-pronged motion by council on Sept. 4. The last is a review of the city’s public ownership business model and practices. The current uproar was that council booted the issue last June, but now we have three substantial utility adjustments in three years. Council ordered a communications strategy to describe “the benefits of public ownership” and explain rates in 2022. At the same time, it allowed Hatters to backdate gas rate contracts to a run-up on gas caused by the war in Ukraine. Last December it offered a special six-month continuation of 2022 rates when it overhauled contract offerings. A look ahead Hatters and their city council will have to wait until Tuesday to hear about a new “best in market” proposal for local power rates. The one-day postponement is due to city hall’s observance of the Sept. 30 federal Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Also, regional water planning and budget process are on the agenda. 100 years ago The search for oil at Many Islands Lake turned up – you guessed it – gas, and at just 1,350 feet, the News reported on Sept. 29, 1923. The strike was reported by the Canadian-American Oil Co., one of several wildcatting entities in the News’s regular reporting on “Oil Fever.” The site was near the Community Oil Well Co., financed co-operatively by Hat residents, and might be the site of a carbon black extraction plant, the News mused. Conservative opposition leader Arthur Meighen addressed a crowd at the Empress Theatre. 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. 33-32
