By Letter to the Editor on April 9, 2024.
Dear editor, Until this week, all I saw of Medicine Hat was from the window of a Greyhound bus. That was enough to suggest to me that it’s a city of rich character, so this week when I got the opportunity to come down and have meetings with several people about climate change and the energy transition, I grabbed a rental car and booked myself an AirBnB for a couple of nights. It was apparent to me that most of the folks I met were not only smart and passionate about the issues, but they also had a strong sense of place and deep engagement in the region, for instance with the Grasslands Naturalists. Is that partly because Medicine Hat is somewhat independent from the provincial electricity grid, and that you have your own natural gas company and infrastructure? The Hat has certainly been, for many years, two steps ahead of the rest of Alberta in terms of energy efficiency programs and using renewable power. I look forward to coming back for longer explorations of the coulees and pathways, as well as the historic buildings downtown. In the meantime, I’ll continue to watch for more leadership from your unique city. Sincerely yours, Roger Gagne Calgary 10