City Notebook: Buckle up, there’s a lot on the way this fall

By Collin Gallant on October 19, 2024.

It’s looking like that time of year – election time, that is.

Beyond now-permanent campaigning in Alberta, there are provincial elections to the left and right of us, literally and figuratively, in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

The U.S. election is two weeks out, and you’d think the same in Canada, though it’s on the same timeline as city hall elections in Alberta.

As evidence, see the organizational meeting planned for Medicine Hat city council on Monday. It denotes the anniversary of the swearing-in of the council group, and as of Tuesday, the next one is a mere 12 months away.

To mark the passage of time a new set of council priorities is set to be announced.

Hashed out earlier this month, council appears dedicated to getting a new, significant recreation facility built on the south side of town. (The first of four weekly budget meetings will be held Tuesday, and if you thought a solar farm might cost a lot, just wait until estimates for a likely twinplex are discussed.)

As well, we’ll probably see some move to get a grip on the city budget, an economic attraction plan and a push for wider action on “social disorder” that plagues cities the country over.

A cynic will note these were also the same basic priorities discussed in the 2021 municipal election and a strategic plan hammered out shortly thereafter.

A realist knows these are big problems with no clear solutions, but would also have to jog their brain to find much full-throated advocacy on these topics over the recent term. The headlined ‘Strong Towns’ project, for one, has been slow-played so hard it seems to have evaporated.

Nature abhorring a vacuum, critics have had a wild three-year free range on timely topics from power prices to transparency to democracy itself and well beyond.

That might change in the final 12 months of the term – council members may focus the issues as time winds down – but is it too late to avoid skepticism from the general voting public of Hatters at large?

We’ll have to see.

Power slump

University of Calgary economics professor Blake Schaffer reports that the number of very low priced hours on the Alberta grid have tripled so far in 2024. At the same time, the number of high-priced hours – which many generators rely on to make profit margins – fell by two thirds. That’s due to more renewable production, which people still say doesn’t work.

There’s a danger here confusing the price earned by generators and the price paid by distributors and customers, but the trend is downward once it’s all averaged out.

Since much of the City of Medicine Hat’s excessive profits each year come from grid sales, that could signal a grim picture when summer power profits are reported Wednesday.

Big numbers

City utility officials report that the efforts of municipal departments and residents resulted in a reduction of 1.8 billion litres of water used this summer. That’s a lot of zeroes, and a 17 per cent local reduction, but still only enough to irrigate 1,500 acres of farmland, about three sections.

Also, this town would really benefit from an information campaign on how to properly and thoughtfully add drought tolerant vegetation to lawns and gardens. Xeriscaping should be about more than turning lawns into gravel driveways.

A look ahead

City council meets Monday before a special budget session Tuesday. The annual Leadership Breakfast sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce is also Tuesday and the city’s latest financial report release happens at Wednesday’s audit committee meeting. As well, a new “Business Growth Trade Show” is underway this week ahead.

100 years ago

The best-ever flow recorded at a city gas well was recorded when a bore “north of the river” produced 4 million feet per day, the News reported in October 1924. Officials also expected some improvement after they stopped drilling at a mere 1,112 feet in depth.

National Independent Labour Party leader J.S. Woodsworth told a local crowd that economic power was now required after political gains of the lower classes.

“We say we are free â€¦ the franchise and freedom of religion, but we are not free until we have economic freedom,” he told the Empress Theatre crowd.

Canada signed its first international agreement – a trade pact with Belgium – without previously going through the British foreign office.

The Chicago board of education ordered that all girls under 16 – married or not – must attend school. The matter affected 10 brides aged 14 and 15.

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