The sun glints though the windows at Medicine Hat city hall.--News file photo
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Never a dull year at city hall, Medicine Hat city government found itself going viral in 2019 for boycotting a conference in Quebec to highlight the need for energy projects, making an application to the Supreme Court, and approving a major scale back of natural gas wells.
It also went forward with an initiative to sell off excess city land, boosted a second straight year of near record electricity profits, parted ways with its curbside recycler and launched a next stage economic development strategy.
Gas wells
The “Gas City” will remain in the gas production business, but elected officials and administrators announced in the fall that it would stem losses of up to $100,000 per day by closing 80 per cent of its wells. The program will take place over three years and start in the spring of 2020. At that time more information should be available about layoffs in the 100-person division and paying for the project, which has been estimated to cost $90 million.
Court challenge
A decade-long dispute over who is responsible for a sewage lift station at River Ridge Condo complex will be decided at the Supreme Court, the News reported in October.
After losing an Alberta Court of appeals decision that ruled the city was responsible for managing the privately built station, which services multiple parcels of a Riverside development, the city applied to Canada’s top court to rule on definitions of private and public utility systems.
Either the court will opt to hear the case and make a ruling, or decline to hear it, and leave in place an Alberta Court of Appeal.
FCM
Council also found itself “going viral” over a decision to boycott a conference in Quebec City over that province’s stance on pipeline projects.
Coming shortly after the Alberta provincial election and sparring between Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Quebec Premier Francois Legault, the internet burned up with messages of support and criticism.
Other Alberta municipalities vowed to go to the event to voice their opinions and win over other civic leaders in the county. Later in the year, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities created a task force of big city mayors, rural and city lobbying groups across the Prairies to sway Ottawa directly.
Land blowout
Working off a mandate to sell land in the city’s holding that’s considered excess, conditional sales are booked for the Medicine Hat Arena, the 603 First St. lot, and a green space near Connaught, all for substantial development. Not without controversy however, Connaught residents protested en masse a new housing development, though council maintained its stance that infill development is needed to grow the tax base without high spending to extend utility lines and roads.
Supervised drug consumption site
Local officials stressed it is a provincial issue, but few issues were as hot at city hall in early 2019 as a potential supervised consumption site in operation near downtown.
Council tasked chief administrative officer Bob Nicolay with studying potential pitfalls and a city response.
That work was suspended in the spring when the new provincial government announced it would review the facilities across the province.
Economic
development
Invest Medicine Hat, a creation of a city economic development program and provided by private contract, was brought in house at city hall in late August.
Widely considered a success for bringing in Aurora Cannabis and Folium Biosciences, the program is being retooled to act as a “one-stop shop” including utility and land sales, for potential business investment by top administrators. The new debut should take place in early 2020, alongside the released of a program aimed at business retention and expansion, as a well as a labour force study.
Utilities
Losses on producing natural gas headlined the story for city’s utility division in 2019, but for a second straight year, up to $40 million in profits were pumped out of the city’s power plant.
The city utility division announced it would close down a solar thermal site and successfully applied to build an expansion to its north-end power plant (final go-ahead is pending).
The water utility made the unusual request that some residents should run water to avoid street connections from freezing up during a frigid February. In the fall, talks on updating a year-old contract between the city and its curbside recycling provider broke down, and a new tender is now being examined.
