City Notebook: Water, water, from where exactly?

By COLLIN GALLANT on November 25, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

It’s been another edition of ag-week in southeast Alberta this week.

There was a new “ag connections” conference put on by Cypress County, the council of which also discussed a municipal drainage and irrigation reinforcement.

The provincial government is also talking about per-designating the Highway 3 corridor as industrial development for food processors – all issues in the News.

Potentially raining on this parade however, may be the growing concern about water availability in the area.

It was a screwy year for spring melt, leading into another drought year.

So, Medicine Hat – which has a big water licence – is now talking about water availability with other municipalities in the basin.

Top of mind should be the physical layout of water distribution and use in the southern prairies, and the fact the Hat is surrounded by powerful voices in the conversation.

Think about it west to east, starting at the headwaters of the foothills and Rockies.

You have two major cities (Calgary and Lethbridge), two major irrigators (St. Mary’s and the Easter Irrigation districts), us, then major irrigation plans at Lake Diefenbaker, and finally Saskatoon.

Where do Medicine Hat’s needs fit in?

Medicine Hat should find out.

A clear view

We’re just past the annual small business week and once again hearing the refrain that upwards of 90 per cent of all businesses are “small businesses.”

That’s true if you use the defining line as having 50 employees, or the lower taxable rate on the first $500,000 of profit.

Now, small business is important and something to get behind, but isn’t that net being cast too widely? Jobs-wise, can you name more than two dozen local outfits that have more than four dozen employees?

The Medicine Hat News doesn’t, and we’d hardly call ourselves a “mom and pop.” Ditto car dealerships, most franchise stores or restaurants, trucking companies, bank branches, etc., not to mention holding companies, which have zero employees.

It’s time advocates update the metrics to find an accurate picture of ground-level entrepreneurship and economic activity, not to mention the health of medium and larger enterprises.

No doubt, small business is under serious strain in the new economy, but how much stress is obscured, exactly, when the data is in too big of a lump.

Likewise, local jobs situation is murky with the Hat combined with Lethbridge in a larger economic region.

Hear and there

Liam Nixon, the former local TV anchor, is in store for a career change. As is usual these days, the Global Lethbridge TV news director announced on social media that after a gratifying 15 years in the business, it was his last week and more info about his future plans are due soon.

Earl Swarbrick, who’s resume as a volunteer and community booster in southwest Saskatchewan is as long as your arm, died last week at the age of 93, according to the Shaunavon Standard.

Leasing long term

It got missed in the shuffle a couple weeks back, but two city golf courses are in the process of signing new long-term, $1 per-year leases for the city land they sit upon. Medicine Hat Golf and Country Club and Connaught Golf Course are required to take care of capital upkeep and dedicate a minimum amount each year, either in work or into a reserve fund. Speaking of, the hot-button issue of leases for clubs on city land designated for northwest industrial park development has been moving forward in the background, the News is told. Put that on your radar.

A look ahead

A council committee will discuss the past year’s activities at Town Square, across from city hall, on Monday. (The space has new electric vehicle chargers, by the way). Counting down, Christmas is one month away as of Saturday.

100 years ago

The Medicine Hat “Monarchs” would form to play in a three-town hockey circuit with Lethbridge and Taber this season, it was decided by the Hat Hockey Association and reported in the News on Nov. 22, 1923.

The Canadian Western Natural Gas Co. had a real “gasser” on its hands as the No. 2 well in the Foremost field came in at 8 million cubic feet per day of production.

Canadian oil workers and investors who headed to California in search of gushers were now returning, and an overproduction of oil made prices unsustainable, The Canadian Press reported.

“Southern California has had a great boom, but the crest is passed,” said W.J. Hammond, a wealthy Winnipegger on his way back north.

The 119,000-acre Knight Ranch near Raymond was acquired by the Knight Sugar Co. of Salt Lake City.

Leaders of a quelled revolt in Bavaria turned on each other as Gen Ludendorff swore he was deceived by co-conspirator Adolph Hitler.

The United Farmers of Ontario, surprise winners of the 1919 election, would debate dissolving the political party after a landslide loss in 1923.

More than 400 entries were expected for the annual Medicine Hat Poultry Show.

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.

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