City councillors were able to vote Monday on motions for a portion of 68 ministerial recommendations which, according to provincial ministerial orders, must be addressed by Oct. 1.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
City councillors spent 45 minutes, similar to a lightning round, of its public meeting Monday evening to review and debate dozens of recommendations that need to be addressed by Oct. 1 as per a ministerial directive issued in July.
The 68 recommendations, which can be found in the Municipal Inspection Report, highlight all findings of irregular or improper management of the city, They must each be addressed and in public, explain why action has or has not been taken.
Recommendations covered Monday surround council orientation, expenses and governance processes, as well as orientation opportunities for new councillors.
Council began the task by reviewing recommendations around the city’s new Code of Conduct bylaw. Two recommendations related to this bylaw were found non-applicable due to provincial law changes and were voted on quickly.
However, a recommendation from the province seeking to change the number of active sitting councillors to seven from nine, required council to go into a brief closed meeting for discussion before being voted on in public.
Council came to the conclusion this issue will be debated in front of a new council in the second quarter of 2026.
The council orientation process would differentiate between new public elected official orientation workshops and on-boarding sessions. Council would also receive governance training sessions scheduled throughout each term.
Another recommendation discussed proposed governance refresher programs be added during council terms. Both of these motions were adopted unanimously.
Councillors also voted to keep the term “managing director” active and not change the title to “general manager” as suggested by the ministry.
Council was also able to vote on a recommendation to approve an update to the travel and corporate training expense policy so that only non-budgeted travel expenses require approval and information about assumption of risk by those who approve expenses.
This item was disregarded and council voted to continue its current approval process for both budgeted and non-budgeted travel expenses.
Council also voted to continue to have full authority over CAO travel and corporate training expenses.
“I think the expense disclosure solved some of that,” said Mayor Linnsie Clark. “But I do think there’s room to have a quicker feedback loop in terms of the CAO’s expenses coming back to council in a timely fashion, which I don’t think is too difficult.”
Due to one recommendation, a spreadsheet of all 68 recommendations as well on council’s motion for adoption will be posted on the city’s website for transparency.
Council has also decided to hold an additional regular meeting on Sept. 29 to further review recommendations found in the municipal report.
Homeless shelter
The city will conduct further research into the best practices municipalities should adopt for permanent shelter placement in the community as it works toward finding a location for shelter before the winter season rolls in.
Coun. Alison Van Dyke told councillors Medicine Hat is not the other urban municipalities struggling to find a location for homeless shelters and says her role in the inter-city forum for social policy has led to a resolution to conduct research.
Van Dyke said the research will be funded by the inter-city forum and be conducted by a team of researchers from the universities of Calgary and Alberta.
However, the research could take as long as two years before an outcome is presented.
At the end of August the city and the Mustard Seed announced common ground on a potential location for a new permanent homeless shelter, which would be located in a city-owned property more than five kilometres from the downtown core.
The potential new shelter would be located at 2055 Saamis Dr., located off the Trans-Canada Highway near the Brier Industrial Estates and a few blocks south of Box Springs Road.
Darren Hirsch
After 32 combined years of service to Medicine Hat, Coun. Darren Hirsch is hanging up his hat as he announced Monday evening he will not seek re-election
“I’ve made the difficult decision not to seek re-election in the upcoming municipal election. Upon much reflection, I cannot believe it’s been 32 years of dedicated public service, starting when I was just 24 years old.”
Hirsch reflected on his time serving on several boards and committees, including the local Chamber of Commerce and Medicine Hat College.
“I’ve worked hard to represent citizens and come with common sense accountability and a commitment to sound governance.”
Hirsch said he is most proud of his role founding the city’s financially fit program, known as Accelerated Financially Fit.
“I’m proud to have delivered on that commitment, which was the biggest expense reduction in the city’s history.”
Hirsch also spoke about navigating struggles that came with the COVID-19 pandemic and spoke briefly about the dysfunction of the current council.
“Thank you. It has been a privilege to serve and I will always be grateful for the trust you placed in me.”
