City Notebook: Breakfast meetings

By COLLIN GALLANT on November 17, 2019.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

The top-of-mind issue at this week’s leadership breakfast put on by the Chamber of Commerce was the issue of Western Alienation and the looming high-noon showdown between Ottawa and Edmonton.

MP Glen Motz delivered what might be the best speech of his three-year political career on the subject, and MLA Drew Barnes, just added to the Fair Deal committee, didn’t disappoint either.

However, the undisputed show stopper of the early morning event was CFB Suffield base commander, Lt.-Col. Troy Liefso.

“I was told not to bring slides, but I think everyone here appreciates AC/DC,” he told the crowd before showing BATUS promotional video that showed tank manoeuvres beneath a hard rock soundtrack.

And never mind that the battery conked out midway, Leifso carried on and clearly won the day describing the base’s economic impact on the region.

It provided just enough relief after a weighty pondering of Alberta’s current situation, which Mayor Ted Clugston described as seemingly worse than the downturn in the early 1980s.

“It just doesn’t seem like there’s a way out,” he said, referring to the usual boom after bust cycle that typically happens, but hasn’t and mostly won’t occur soon in the case of natural gas.

Of note though, Clugston revealed the city has been actively attempting to increase capacity to bring more natural gas to the city, potentially to support value added chemical production.

Region roundup

Another tidbit from the breakfast was from Redcliff Mayor Dwight Kilpatrick, fresh from budget meetings in the town last week.

“There will be no tax increase in Redcliff, unless it’s in the (provincially determined) education portion,” said Kilpatrick, also throwing support between the idea of shared municipal services (a framework agreement due in early 2020 will lay ground rules for further talks).

Xmas calendar

Dates of note with six weeks out from Christmas:

– Midnight Madness, presented by the City Centre Development Agency, Fri., Nov. 22.;

– Poinsettia Tea, Westminster United Church, Sat., Nov. 23;

– Police Point Park Lions Club Christmas Hayride, Sunday, Dec. 1;

– Medicine Hat Stampede Enerplus Olde Tyme Christmas Fair & Christmas Farmers’ Market, Thursday, Dec. 5.

– Canadian Pacific Holiday Train, Wed., Dec. 18, (with country artist Meghan Patrick – she opened here for Dwight Yoakam a few years back).

A look ahead

Council meets Monday to debate a now completed bylaw to regulate recreational fireworks.

And, get ready for another dizzying week in Edmonton, where the provincial government will table its budget implementation legislation on Monday as well as measures stemming from the “Red Tape Reduction” exercise undertaken by Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter. Its plan to change farm safety legislation brought in by the previous government as Bill 6 is also in the offing, Premier Jason Kenney told the Rural Municipalities Association convention on Friday.

100 years ago

The city’s fire whistle signalled 11 o’clock on the morning of Nov. 11, 1919 to signal an informal two-minutes of silent remembrance of the conflict in Europe, the News’ afternoon edition reported.

Main topics covered at the meeting of the Alberta Municipalities convention were industrialization of more “home rule” for cities, and provincial spending on education and health, according to Mayor Brown.

Brown himself was facing a potential challenge in the fast approaching annual municipal election. A citizen’s movement was working on a draft R.W. Morrow campaign to oppose Brown.

The abolition of the ward system in Medicine Hat meant the city would be divided in seven voting precincts for the upcoming annual municipal elections.

Violence between unionists and war veterans continued in Centralia, Wash. as targeted shootings and a lynching followed disruptions of Armistice Day parade by the International Workers of the World.

Hatter Harry Dobbin, a flight lieutenant, was killed when his plane crashed in Ontario after a mission to drop Victory Loan pamphlets on a town near Ottawa.

The recently elected minority government of the United Farmers of Ontario was “the deadliest enemy privilege ever faced in Canada,” declared an editorial by the Toronto Globe, citing platform promising of publicly owned railways and new tariff systems.

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