City notebook: Public power debate

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on September 23, 2023.

https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

It was 75 years ago that an electrification plebiscite to nationalize power lines in Alberta was defeated by the narrowest of margins.

How narrow? The margin was just 151 votes out of the 380,000 cast on Aug. 17, 1948.

The result was the continuation of power provided by private interests and municipal power companies. The alternate was a new system owned and operated by the provincial power commission under the control of Social Credit government, which wasn’t particularly warm to the idea.

“Cities… faced the expropriation of their profit-making municipal plants” in the “bitterly fought” issue and local councils endorsed the existing system, according to Canadian Press reports of the day.

The spread in Medicine Hat was a whopping 5,186 to 1,214 against giving up control to the province. At 80 per cent, it was the largest majority in the province.

Two-thirds majorities were counted in Lethbridge and Calgary (both with civic power plants at the time), alongside a tighter race in Edmonton.

Rural districts, like Bow Valley-Empress, Acadia Valley, Taber, Okotoks and all of northern Alberta, went the other way, agreeing with New Democrat forerunner, the CCF, on the need for price controls and public ownership.

Back to the future

A note in the News this week informed Hatters that the public utility board of Saskatchewan won’t hear a rate increase proposal from provincially controlled SaskPower this year.

The price there will be 15.9-cents this winter for electricity in the cost-recovery plan of the crown corporation.

In Medicine Hat, where there’s a vocal movement toward bare cost-recovery for the city utility, the current 12-month contract rate is 16.9-cents.

Apples and oranges and all that — a province isn’t a city — but it’s only 1/16th more that our neighbours who seem to love the Crowns create by the NDP in that province, even if they prefer to vote for the Saskatchewan Party today.

Here, it’s all bound to change when a new “best in market” rate goes to council on Oct. 3. That concept was loosely described by city staff on Sept. 4 as a rate that considers the contract prices, not jut the default offerings of major retailers in the province. Will current “locked-in contracts” be unbreakable?

The city hasn’t yet said, but basic logic suggests no.

The power plant’s business philosophy will also be up for debate in a report due in early 2024. That may seem like a long time away, but it’s a big complex issue with a long history (see above) and major implications.

Look who’s dropped by

Rick Orman, a contender for president of the United Conservative Party board was in Redcliff on Sept. 15 to collect about 80 signatures for his nomination papers. The deadline to run is Oct. 2, and voting takes place at the party’s AGM a Calgary on the Nov. 3 weekend.

Tourism Minister Joe Schow met with city council members on Monday to discuss the region. Schow is already well-versed as he has family in Medicine Hat. His brothers went to high school here — some time ago now — and his dad ran a dental practice. Speaking of some time ago, the recent “to hell with the bell” luncheon held for members of Medicine Hat retired teachers association featured a special commemoration of the local group’s founding in 50 years ago. It takes place each year on the first meeting after the start of the school year.

100 years ago

Why are liquor laws not enforced in Medicine Hat?, wondered the “Liquor Prohibition Committee” in a front page ad on the News’ Sept. 22, 1923 edition.

The advocacy group formed ahead of a provincial plebiscite on booze sales continued “Is it because the law is no good or is it because you have in authority a ‘wet’ mayor and council?”

“Moderation is a ‘nice’ sounding word” used by liquor interests, suggesting broad-mindedness, but stripped of its guise meant a return to saloons,plan and simple, it argued. The vote, on allowing government controlled sales to licensed establishments, would be held Nov. 5.

Oklahoma was put under martial law to combat widespread violence and street floggings fuelled by the Klu Klux Klan.

The veterans association in Lethbridge formally opposed the idea that a memorial in that city take the form of a cenotaph. Instead, they proposed that a “heroic sized” statue of an infantryman be commissioned to stand in Galt Gardens.

Bobbed hairstyles were popular and stylish, a ladies page columnist noted, though wigs were a potential tonic for those with regrets.

For uneasy about displaying their ears, a variety of “ear rouges” and vegetable dyes offered a remedy.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 of via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com.