City notebook: Bored enough to take a guess

By Collin Gallant on September 22, 2018.

August holds the dog days, devoid of much to do or talk about. Vacations are scheduled, golf balls drift through the air, most everyone who can usually kicks off work early.

September, too, it seems hasn’t been much to talk about.

The last two city council meetings have lasted an average length of 17 minutes. Those sessions included the perfunctory need to vote on accepting minutes of committee meetings that are dealt with entirely in camera, and therefore have no public minutes.

For those readers still awake after that sentence, let’s speculate on what’s being discussed for public consumption this autumn.

— The City Budget: It’s due in January, but there are big cuts tot he budget promised to make tax increases more palatable. It’s all part of an ongoing plan to be financially fit, (haven’t you heard) and erase another $16 million per year from reserves making up for once plentiful natural gas income.

— An updated utility plan: Is anything as it was 12 months ago before two huge power contracts were announced?

— Gas income: Natural gas dipped again this year and stayed low. Could a reworking of the divisions outlook be in order?

— Dog Park: Perhaps minor in light of the above two items, the dog-owning public freaked out this summer when restrictions were announced for the off-leash area near the Saamis Archeological site. Councillors voted in August for new options.

Market Movers

Money keeps pouring into the stock market for companies that have, er, exposure, to marijuana legalization.

In case you thought you were too late to catch the wave, analysts report the value of the 22 largest Canadian marijuana companies has doubled since mid-August.

Aurora Cannabis stock sat at about $8 when local plans to build in the Hat were announced in March. It rocketed to $12.50 this week on news that it may have been in talks with Coca-Cola to develop cannabis beverages. It even kept moving after a statement that no deal was in the works.

In more traditional sectors, Hatters might be heartened to know Methanex and CF Industries both hit all-time highs this week. Methanex shares topped C$100 and CF $50, putting the market cap for the companies over $8 and $12 billion, respectively.

That’s largely due to a continuing dismal outlook for natural gas prices, which both turn into higher priced methanol and fertilizer.

Another catch-up for Methanex, its recently approved move to advance engineering work at a proposed Louisiana expansion will actually cost US$40 million, a slip on the keyboard set the cost at $400 million in a recent article. What a difference a zero makes!

A look ahead

Smoke-free locations will be debated at Monday’s public services committee meetings. Yes, that covers where pot can be smoked in city limits. An original suggestion to council that cannabis restriction mimic existing tobacco rules was well accepted in August, but a proposal to nix both practices at campgrounds seems to have been removed.

Also, council has to get on its horse to get regulations enacted before the planned legalization date of Oct. 17. If things go smoothly at committee, council would first hear the bylaw at the scheduled Oct. 1 meeting, then pass it two weeks later on Oct. 15.

100 years ago

The Board of Trade contemplated whether wartime restrictions German- and Austrian-born Canadians on the wages, mobility and occupation should extend into future peace-time, the News reported in late September, 1918.

The debate arose after the local business group received a letter from the “Anti-Hun League” of Canada, based in Vancouver. Local officials stated such measures would be hard to enforce. They resolved to make further inquiries.

Provincial geologists were surveying area natural gas fields throughout the province for gasoline content, and the Hat to Hanna rail line of the Canadian Northern Railway had reached as far south as the Red Deer River.

The local casualties list included Pte. J. Pickard as killed in action.

The Boer War veteran had homesteaded in Irvine before joining the 175th Battalion.

The Tsar and Empress of Russia, along with five children had been executed by Bolsheviks, newspapers in Britain had been told.

The War Cabinet in Ottawa named commanders of the 4,200-member Siberian Expeditionary Force that would be dispatched to Vladivostok in support of the “White Russian” forces in the Russian Civil War.