City Notebook: Bigger issues coming up soon

By Collin Gallant on April 19, 2025.

Expect to hear more, or maybe not, about the Saamis Solar Park in the weeks ahead, as well as the tips of the waves regarding the idea of setting up a municipally controlled corporation to operate the city’s energy division.

That’s the word from administrators at committee this week.

They are preparing initial analysis of the “arm’s length” non political body that was suggested by business-positive consultant KPMG last fall, and will present it Tuesday to council.

The plan for the next energy committee meeting on May 1 is to rush off afterwards to the “municipal mingle” at the Big Marble Go Centre where top administrators rub shoulders with Hatters and answer questions.

Will there be more info available than earlier this month when the department sought $675,000 for advanced planning and analysis of the $100-million proposal? And also mention of contractual timelines, but no guarantees.

That was crouched in typical language of confidentiality, the sort of pages-long legalese included in every corporate press release.

It’s also the sort of veiled language that renewable power opponents see as suspicious. Uncertainty, never sounds good when seven or eight zeroes are involved.

The Medicine Hat Utility Ratepayers Association has already reiterated its points this week, following a sit-down meeting with top city officials. That’s an unusual step.

While staffers may want to hedge their language, so too do council members.

Most say there’s a lot of work still to do, which could be meant to convey a sense of responsibility, but could also come across as delinquency.

“I understand there’s frustration in the community,” Mayor Linnsie Clark told the News. “I feel like we don’t have the requisite information to make an informed decision at this point.”

Coun. Robert Dumanowski got as close as anyone explaining that already spending $7 million on Saamis might have been a good idea.

“I know there are opposing views out there, everyone at (council) knows that,” he said told council on April 7. “When we entered into the process we understood the economics to be highly viable.

“From an investment opportunity standpoint we saw that, and landscape is evolving and changing more than we would have imagined in the last few months.

“Due diligence is part and parcel with elected office.”

Another council veteran, energy chair Darren Hirsch, has reiterated his support for the purchase but is quick to add it might not be built by the city.

Stepping back, the two factors in determining viability for any project are revenue measured against capital cost.

Specific to the city, revenue is mostly cost savings or improved margin for a solar project operating in the city’s closed market – not a merchant facility selling of Alberta’s wild west power grid – and a refined capital cost could come after the current study is complete right around election time.

If it weren’t for the cloudy relationship between council and the mayor, Saamis and the MCC would be far and away to top election issue in the city.

(Clark’s legal bills are also up for discussion Tuesday, by the way).

Tune in

Tangentially, energy division head Rochelle Pancoast managed some plain language about the project and larger issues for the power division at an unusual venue this week.

CBC’s West of Centre podcast taped at the Esplanade before live audience and is now widely available online.

She’s done something similar three times in six months, by your author’s count, first with 90-minute committee and council presentations on the multi-pronged challenges facing the city utilities, from carbon levies to a wholesale Alberta grid restructuring.

Airfare

After-dinner dog walkers may have noticed much larger aircrafts coming in for a landing at Medicine Hat lately. New to the WestJet route is the De Havilland Dash 8-400, with 74 seats. A note here that the city is also accepted bids once again for a car rental agency to offer service at the regional airport.

A look ahead

Council will sit Tuesday this week after the Easter weekend. The federal election enters its final week as advanced voting ends Monday ahead of general voting April 28. Friday is Arbour Day.

100 years ago

John Kollesavich was found guilty of the shotgun murder of a Walsh railwayman and sentenced to hang in July, the News reported on April 25, 1925, after a weeklong trial.

R.B. Bennett, the Calgary lawyer and former justice minister who lost his seat by 16 votes in 1921, was rumoured to be in line for a Toronto riding as the Progressive Conservatives prepared for a fall election.

A potential merger of the Canadian Northern and Canadian Pacific railways was floated as a way to meet financial expectations of the two companies.

A move to hold summer sporting events at the new “community rink” in Medicine Hat was being pushed by local athletics groups.

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