City Notebook: New council’s unique approach facing first big test
By COLLIN GALLANT on March 12, 2022.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant There’s a leadership strategy that states you should let people complain long enough to feel heard before offering solutions. Jump in too soon, you risk aggravating frustration. Too late however, positions harden and resolution slips away. That could be where the City of Medicine Hat is after going round and round and round for three hours at a public hearing last Monday. Long discussed was a plan to build an industrial park in the city’s northwest, which is obviously a keystone of investment attraction efforts, but could eventually threaten five clubs leasing land from the city. They are no small enterprises – the speedway and drag strip among them – and it’s clear they are fighting mad, fearful they won’t be given a fair hearing. One has to time travel back to the Veiner Centre debate following the 2013 flood to recall so many upset people in council chambers at one time. And in the end, it’ll be back later this month after “options” are developed to assuage clubs with concerns that they’ll be taken into account. Tabling an issue is hardly new for this specific council, but the tact is beginning to show a real break from council’s of the recent past. A decade-old complaint is that all debate takes place behind closed doors, so should we be upset council meetings now stretch into the wee hours? Despite the fact it was very messy, the NW Industrial Park is a notable break. If the city was prepared to steamroll this through, would council really let one guy yell at them for half an hour at a public hearing? It may be proper to let Hatters have their say, but it’s also jarring in comparison. And it puts a spotlight on the handcuffs on the city’s economic development wing, Invest Medicine Hat. It was created to bring businesslike efficiency to city efforts. That’s the great wish of many, many Hatters, by the way. But just as many, or perhaps the same, Hatters want things in this city to remain as is, or preferably go back in time. Does the potential of drawing major industrial investment to Medicine Hat outweigh the cost of moving clubs? Even if it’s 20 years from now? It’s a good question and politicians will have to ask and answer it. In the end it’s their responsibility. But when do they jump in? So far they’ve been happy to keep a good distance from Invest MH projects – whereas the last mayor and council were quite the opposite. This presents a weird picture because for many people here, council, the planning department and Invest Medicine Hat are seen as one in the same. That’s not legally true, but hardly a black and white line over the years. The council under Mayor Linnsie Clark, including a majority of rookies, appears to take letter of their legal responsibilities to heart, but can they shepherd this issue through to fruition? Can they broker a solution which still brings in keystone economic development? It’s an early, yet key test of this five-month-old council term. Quick ones Two interesting items buried in the Alberta budget are money for pre-designated industrial zones (a UCP campaign promise in 2019) and cash grants to advance carbon capture projects ($58 million a year until 2025). Saddling up The Brooks Kinsmen Rodeo has been organized by the service club in that city for the past 60 years, but will now be handed over to the Silver Sage Ag Society. That will lead to rebranding to the “Newell Pro Rodeo” in June. Speaking of rodeos, the Broncs and Honky Tonks show in Medicine Hat is only a month-ish away. It begins April 22, and the big outdoor show at the Medicine Hat Stampede grounds is July 28-30. Another look through the Canadian Pro Rodeo calendar shows the additional of the sanctioning of the Raymond Stampede as a pro-event on the Canada Day long weekend. A closer look ahead sees the Medicine Hat Bull Sale underway this week ahead. A look ahead Clocks change Sunday morning in Alberta where, last October a majority of Albertans voted either for or against moving clocks to align with either B.C. or Saskatchewan, ahead or back, whichever was which (who can keep track?). Either way, it’s “spring ahead” so let’s please move on with our lives. Also, change the batteries in your smoke detectors. 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 37-36
