City Notebook: Yay, nay, or undecided on MCC, council will spend final months under fire

By Collin Gallant on June 28, 2025.

Speakers attempted to get their pound of flesh from city council members at a public hearing this week, and not just on a plan to create a corporation to run Medicine Hat’s utility.

Jabs about Division Avenue, wanting to build a solar field, even selling off gas wells were wondered about loudly.

One speaker singled out indecisiveness and infighting and how they could decide this issue with only months left in the term,

The subtext of this issue appears to be that the council that couldn’t make a decision now shouldn’t be allowed to.

It could be seen as a similar irony that since the issues of the energy division are so complicated, now is not the time to bring in an expert board to manage them.

But a ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ is required, and much of the controversy is transferrable or transplanted to criticisms of council both here and Canada over – about housing, affordability, taxes and, you name it.

There is value however, to having residents put their argument on the record.

Has council been adequately called upon the carpet for not short-circuiting the 2023 power rate controversy?

Has the city answered the general public’s questions about a new corporate management board?

It is not hard for folks to feel like a more business-like setup will put them on the short end. That’s even when the constant call is to run government more like a business.

Yet, a decision is needed.

Some feel creating an aligned rate review committee to begin with would be a good start to introduce and test drive the concepts

But, what would this committee review?

A current (interim) commodity rate is providing power today at 2015 prices. It would likely be up to an MCC to suggest changes.

Meanwhile, natural gas at 20 cents on the Alberta market is priced akin to gas in 1925.

Up next

The whole issue will be discussed again July 17 at the same meeting where the mayor’s legal bills will be taken up again. Also outstanding is the review of council procedures by Alberta Municipal Affairs ordered by council last fall. A week later, rodeo goers in the city will be sitting in the grandstands that have been the subject of a five-year discussion about replacement.

Hockey intrigue

There’s little rest for hockey fans, it seems, when your team plays for a title (or wins one, in Medicine Hat’s case).

The NHL Draft was this weekend and the WHL schedule is out.

There’s also little doubt that the junior hockey landscape is shifting and still unclear after U.S. colleges began signing Canadian Hockey League players this year.

More proof that money is now a major factor is the rumoured $14-million expansion fee paid by the Penticton Vees to jump up to the WHL level this year.

The Vees host the Tigers at the ‘South Okanagan Event Centre’ in October, and it will likely get a new name by then.

One naming-rights curveball this spring was the closure of Peavey Mart, and subsequent renaming of the Peavey Mart Centrium in Red Deer to the Marchant Crane Centrium.

That rolls off the tongue somewhat better than the VisitLethbridge.com Arena, or the Temple Gardens Centre in Moose Jaw.

By my math, it’s also been five years since Co-op signed on to sponsor Co-op Place in town here. It could be due for an extension.

A look ahead

It’s Canada Day up Canada way, as Stompin’ Tom would say, on Tuesday. Is this one bigger, better or more pronounced in the current North American context?

City council next meets July 7.

100 years ago

An earthquake moved pictures on walls and caused “electroliers” to sway in Medicine Hat at dinner time on June 27, 1925, the News of the day reported.

Some tenants of apartment blocks rushed in the streets motivated “of dread they knew not what,” only to meet those out of doors who hadn’t felt the tremor at all.

The quake was centred in Gallatin Valley, Mont., where there was $500,000 in damage, and was felt in four surrounding states. The next day, a quake in Santa Barbara, Ca., caused $10 million in damage and killed at least a dozen residents in a hotel collapse.

A garden party at the Uberrhein residence opened the summer social season and was “successful from every viewpoint.”

There was a big crowd at the Irvine Stampede, and good broncos, and the annual Oddfellows picnic at Central Park was also a success, according to the society page.

(FYI, electroliers was the term for a chandelier fitted with electric lights.)

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