City Notebook: Will Hatters buy into smart growth strategy?

By COLLIN GALLANT on February 11, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

The good news is the sky is not falling, if I’m to understand the “Strong Towns” philosophy described to Hatters this week.

Unfortunately though, up might be down.

The city-led discussions with the non-profit municipal issue think tank provided a general overview of its position that unfettered suburban growth, business and building subsidies, and other urban planning and regulatory matters are setting up cities as unsustainable.

It has to do with the ability to bring in revenue versus operating costs and tackling longer-term road maintenance over the coming decades.

Accounting is never really grab-you-by-the-eyeballs sort of stuff, but the broader argument could resonate.

Medicine Hat is bigger than ever, but so are tax bills.

The tax assessment base has tripled since 2003, and yet taxes steadily went up even as our population grew by 25 per cent over the same time.

Yes, the city lost gas dividends after 2013, but hikes started a decade before then in a city that raised taxes only once in the 1990s.

If the city’s costs to set off a south-side building boom was an investment (offsite levy subsidies, new road and utility networks), when’s the payoff?

But, will Hatters believe that big homes and box stores on the outskirts are a problem?

An easy read of Hatters finds they don’t like taxes and are suspicious of “a city’s ability to raise revenue.”

Yet, we’ve all thought it’s a shame that downtown seems a shadow, though popular thought wonders about tearing it down and starting from scratch.

This is despite the fact, still, warts and all, the defined city core provides more tax revenue than the Medicine Hat Mall. Believe that or not.

It’s also true the city’s own planning reports consistently show low-density residential housing doesn’t cover the cost to service it.

Former city councillor Kris Samraj brought this up often, though his ultimate position was that proved business taxes were too high.

So there’s a lot to mull.

After the introduction Hatters are left to meditate or stew, depending, before more events this spring. Working groups in the meantime will kick around ideas, and the “community action lab” continues from there.

The timeline may be a soft sell of a complex concept, but the idea of waiting two years before the city is willing to step forward with a development policy may not sit well.

And, where does that put the idea of a city-led industrial park in the northwest?

H is for hush?

It’s hydrogen-this and hydrogen-that these days but the supposed super fuel of the future may also be the tonic required to calm a long-standing gripe in Medicine Hat. Canadian Pacific is now conducting revenue runs with hydrogen fuel-cell-powered locomotives between Calgary and Edmonton. Those prototypes combine an electric motor with an onboard power plant, and the difference in noise compared to diesel is noticeable.

Should they make it to Medicine Hat anytime soon, perhaps we could retire the long-standing ticked-off notices about trains idling in the downtown marshalling yard.

In case you’re wondering, CP has already mapped out a plan to build its own hydrogen production facilities at yards near major centres.

A look ahead

The Town of Redcliff will hold a public hearing Monday to discuss a proposed deer attractants and feeding bylaw. The city has discussions on a similar bylaw going on in the background, but discussed the potential measure in council earlier this year. The main topic of debate was to what degree Alberta Fish and Wildlife should be involved in the issue that is largely out of the town’s hands, but lands in their laps when angry citizens pick up the phone to complain.

It’s the Super Bowl on Sunday, but don’t forget Valentine’s Day on Tuesday.

100 years ago

A precipitous drop in revenue could result in a $2-million deficit in 1922 for the provincial government, warned headlines in the Medicine Hat News 100 years ago.

Also in the capital, “Sheep men” should be afforded the same access to newly created system of provincial grazing leases as cattlemen, delegates argued in meetings with Agriculture Minister R.G. Reid. Also urged was support to develop a beet sugar industry.

Delegations of farmers from north of Maple Creek also headed to Ottawa to lobby for extension of CP Rail Mainline to Empress as to end a need to haul produce 40 miles out of the area at a time of high costs and low grain prices.

More than 2,000 hockey fans in Regina took in the Prairie Hockey League Game between the Saskatoon Crescents and hometown Capitals.

Bell-bottom trousers, slimmer waists and narrow-shouldered suits were declared passe in 1923, according to a survey of Chicago haberdashers. “In” were morning coats and cutaways.

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