City Notebook: Power report: a wild year in the making

By Collin Gallant on November 23, 2024.

It’s been a year in the making, but the contents of a third-party report on the city’s energy business won’t be known until Monday.

And it might be months more until any action comes from the report commissioned by council in response to public outcry over record high prices last year.

The subject is made more interesting by near record low prices this year.

It lands at council on Monday in a special meeting, 6:30 p.m. in council chambers and simulcast on the city’s Youtube Channel.

Some background material will appear today on the city’s “Shape Your City” website, the News is told, but the full report won’t be released until the meeting begins.

That will be the first chance council members will have to go through it as well, then pose questions to reps from the report author KPMG.

Hut 8

Who likes the results of the U.S. presidential election? The shareholders in Hut 8, to name a few.

The cryptocurrency firm’s stock has doubled since Nov. 4, and is up about 200 per cent since late summer – about $37 in on Friday compared to $12 on Labour Day.

For the record, the expanding company is now about 10 times bigger than when Medicine Hat became its flagship dataprocessing facility six years ago.

Speaking ofâ€¦

This week the Alberta Electric System’s Operator began outlining how much power might be requested from proposed data centres in the province for artificial intelligence or other computing use.

About 6 gigawatts worth would increase power demand by 50 per cent in short order. Just when you thought the power market was settling down, hey?

(Speaking of that, check out this column’s top item).

Quick ones

– What’s in a name?

Alberta’s health regions will now be called “health corridors”, no doubt the result of brainstorming by communications consultants. A “corridor” implies transition or movement, while a “zone” implies something more stationary.

– Globe and Mail subscribers may already know, but former Medicine Hat museum head Donny White was featured in an article last weekend that explored the the presence of the KKK in Saskatchewan in the 1920s.

White recently discovered several of the group’s white ceremonial robes in long-term storage of the permanent archives of the Maple Creek Jasper Centre, where White is now director.

-Lots of lots? Not so much – a look at the city’s real estate map shows just five residential lots left in phases Ranchlands, eight in Southlands and 16 in Saamis (more development figures coming soon). And, yes, the ship has sailed, but we’ll mention that the half-block lot across from the police station earmarked for an apartment projects was one of the final potential sites for the replacement of the Medicine Hat Arena.

– A Memorial Cup decision is due soon, and local bid committee, the city and Tigers pulled out the stops in their pitch for the 2026 event. We can’t help feel like a little bit more noise from fans at Co-op Place might help the effort.

A look ahead

A special meeting of council on Monday will delve into a third-party report on the future of the city-owned energy division. Council’s next regular meeting on Dec. 2 features debate on finalizing the 2025-26 city budget.

100 years ago

A ratepayers meeting of Hat residents raised question about power plant management as Ald. Simpson continued year-long criticism of the management,” the News reported on Nov. 26, 1924.

A profit of $7,000 in 1923 had turned into a deficit of $7,000 in 1924, he said, “which need not have occurred had common sense been used.”

A late-year report for the gas department – printed in full within the News – showed good progress toward an expected gross profit of $105,000.

Mayor Walter Huckvale will seek re-election in the annual municipal election.

Alberta’s Hoteliers Association met in Calgary to lobby for the ability to import beer from other provinces and develop rules for punishing minors attempting to imbibe in their establishments. Medicine Hat’s William Conrod was elected a director at the meetings at Calgary’s Palliser Hotel.