City Notebook: This just in… Knowledge really is a powerful thing

By COLLIN GALLANT on September 16, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

It’s been a couple of months now that Canadian media have been blocked by social media giant Facebook, so let’s take a quick poll.

Hands up if you feel like the world has become suddenly dumber.

So, OK, I’m biased, and “dumber” is in there for a cheap laugh.

But, have a look around and ask yourself if there’s more or less frustration today. Take a zip around Facebook and see if people are better educated, feeling more in control of their circumstances, or better connected to government.

It’s too much for “traditional media” to put itself on a pedestal as a cure-all to issues that have been simmering for years. Frustration, isolation and even despair were well established trends before the pandemic, and not everything in a newspaper’s pages, either in print or the web, is reassuring.

But information can be valuable.

Despite the News’s Facebook clicks being exactly zero once news stories got filtered out of content in June (there’s a tax fight between it and Ottawa right now), we’ve received a number of thank-yous from Hatters for our coverage of utility bills.

Those who saw it – home subscribers and others who can find our very-easy-to-find website – seem to have benefited.

An example: The News published six articles in June and July about the approaching high power prices in Medicine Hat when a six-month special offer was set to expire.

Without action, those articles stated, local ratepayers would be left swimming in record high waters of default prices.

Yet, figures earlier this month from city staffers stated two out of every three customers in Medicine Hat hadn’t signed on to a new fixed rate at half the default price.

This is while the howls into the social media universe derided power bills that had seemingly doubled for no good rhyme or reason.

The cumulative cost to ratepayers was in the tens of millions for those who took no action.

Another telling example, last December when the News was the first to discover a loophole in the city’s rate redo, we published an explanation of how to lock in last year’s prices until June.

Suddenly, Medicine Hat had the highest proportion of fixed-rate customers in the province, about four out of five accounts took advantage.

We digress. The argument seems to be that decision-making shouldn’t be so complex, and maybe so.

The cumulative savings were in the tens of millions for the citizens of this city, which seems like a lot compared to $1 a day for the paper – a rate that hasn’t risen for a decade.

Imagine that… and the News somehow manages to pay our share of taxes.

Promotions

Janice Redmond who many know as one of the key people at Action Land Services in Dunmore over the years was announced as a new senior manager with Canada West Land Services.

Medicine Hat College political science professor Jim Groom has been making appearances on CTV’s Alberta PrimeTime news and analysis program.

Community spirit

There’s a boatload to do this week in the city (get out and about before it snows), but a shout-out leftover from last week goes to the Kinsmen Club of Medicine Hat.

For several years it has added an important element to the annual Santa Claus Fund Toy Run, most recently conducted last weekend.

Their idea is genius in its simplicity: while bikers taking part get pancakes in Irvine before the run, a number of Hatters who prefer four-wheeled transportation head to the Stampede grounds directly by truck or car with donations. There, the Kinsmen barbecue squad provides hamburgers for masses and maybe motorcyclists ready for round No. 2.

A look ahead

Council convenes Monday to discuss a new budget and operational plan for the city’s economic development office, a long-term transportation maintenance planning and a potential (yet still unnamed) buyer of the Monarch Theatre.

100 years ago

Mrs. N.M. Waldo, of 537 Seventh St., won the “Klass A Kake Kooking Kontest” at the Rotary Club’s “Kommunity Karnival” as the fundraising event “Kame to a Konclusion,” the News reported konfusingly on Sept. 15, 1923.

A masquerade ball at the “Kurling Klub Drew a Kapacity Krowd” while Armoury Park was transformed into a fairyland for a City Band performance.

Canadian wheat would dominate world markets, it was predicted as crop failures and low yields plagued U.S. and European producers.

The federal government declared Thanksgiving Day would be celebrated Nov. 12, the News reported, the date being the Monday following Armistice Day on Sunday, Nov. 11, so the two holidays would be comprised as one.

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.