City notebook: Aurora’s leader staying grounded under the limelight

By Collin Gallant on June 23, 2018.

Maybe its the now-set date for marijuana legalization, but Aurora Cannabis CEO Terry Booth is getting a fair amount attention in the national media these days.

Last week the Globe and Mail ran a long feature on the man whose company has a $120-million project on the go in Medicine Hat. On Friday, they delved into Aurora’s unique corporate takeover strategy. Indeed, hardly a week goes by when Aurora hasn’t taken someone over, or bought into some other company in the mad dash to capitalize on the cannabis market that will be legal in mid-October.

Booth also emailed the News last week to correct an error, going above and beyond in discussing the merits of his operation.

The News had reported on economic impact by Invest Medicine Hat that stated local wages from the huge Aurora Sun facility would be $18 million per year.

He says it’s closer to $25 million.

That’s a personal touch that not many leaders of billion-dollar companies have.

Oil prices

The city is continuing with a drilling program to find more oil, the News reported this week, and will put that cash on a bottom line that’s being hit even harder than usual by yet-still lower natural gas prices.

Oil is going the other way, and has sat in the mid-US$60 range for most of the year.

However, the city’s general manager of petroleum resources Brad Maynes notes high prices lead to more drilling, more supply and lower prices.

“When oil crests at $70, all of the U.S. unconventional oil plays become economical,” he told a committee Thursday, believing the current price to be fairly firm. “If there was ever a time for (that sector) to shine, this is it. It will be the story to watch in 2018.”

Airport

WestJet has arrived, but Hatters may have to wait a little while longer to see the next phase of growth at the Medicine Hat Regional Airport.

Last year, city land department officials said they would move on a council directive to make more commercial land available at the airport entrance.

A first toe in the pool is cleaning up historic hanger sites for potential airside businesses and land adjacent to Highway 3 for general businesses.

Last week’s land dept. annual report includes a note about a snag in the plan, however.

The goal is to boost opportunity but not where new money or major utility upgrading in needed.

The current water service to the airport is substandard for firefighting purposes if new major commercial projects are added.

“We’ll be talking with our engineering folks to see how we proceed,” department general manager Grant MacKay told the News.

Election

This week the News has laid out new boundaries in the expected 2019 provincial election for the region, but looking a little further out finds some names of local note seeking nomination.

Specifically in the new riding of Cardston-Siksika, former Hatter Joe Schow is seeking the nomination for the United Conservative Party.

Schow, who has family in the city, previously sought the Conservative federal nomination in the Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner byelection.

His competition for the UCP nod is Marc Slingerland, who was in Medicine Hat this week at a court hearing where two dozen religious schools are opposing the provincial Gay-Straight Alliance legislation.

Slingerland is a principal at the Calvin Christian School near Monarch, and is a previous federal candidate for the Christian Heritage Party.

A look ahead

A look at how Medicine Hat’s transit system compares to other mid-sized municipalities (i.e. Lethbridge) in Alberta will be presented to Monday’s meeting of the public services committee. A quick peak at the numbers show they may be surprising.

100 years ago

Trainloads of American troops from Spokane were greeted by thronging crowds at the Medicine Hat train station on June 22, 1918, the Medicine Hat News reported 100 years ago this week.

The event marked the first time in history U.S. soldiers had passed peacefully through Canada, the paper stated.

Troops paraded briefly down North Railway Street and around the business block before disembarking “for Berlin, via Flanders.”