Ted Grimm, who served as Medicine Hat's mayor for parts of four decades, has died. -- NEWS FILE
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
While 2021 might not have seen the corner turned in the COVID-19 pandemic, it may go down as a watershed year at Medicine Hat city hall.
A major cost-cutting program nullified a tax increase and basically filled a long-standing structural budget deficit left by long-gone natural gas profits.
The city also completed an eight-year-old flood berming program, launched a new hydrogen industrial strategy and adjacent carbon, worked away at natural gas abandonment and a power plant expansion.
As well, a sea-change election saw three-quarters turnover – a state of affairs that should lend to an interesting 2022 as well.
“A lot of important things happened in 2021, both for good and bad,” said Mayor Linnsie Clark, who with six other first-time candidates joined council in the fall.
“We as a city have some work to do communicating those good things that are happening.
“Looking forward, we’re looking into and trying to get in front of an energy transition that the whole world is in. A big part of that is having a really strong plan for our energy assets.”
The new council group will launch strategic priority meetings early in the new year and then draft a new budget for 2023.
That’s about 12 months after Hatters were presented with a debate about continuing public ownership of the city’s power generation assets.
In 2021, Hatters were also presented with a plan to bolster a hydrogen production strategy and a related effort by the city to capture and store carbon dioxide with industrial partners.
The office proposing both, Invest Medicine Hat, came under intense scrutiny as a plan to contract out its services became a major election issue.
Council veteran Robert Dumanowski said before the fall election that the city was poised for positives in 2022 thanks to a stronger budget position, and planning for industrial strategy and business attraction.
“It was probably the most engaged voters have been in my memory,” said Dumanowski this month. “It’s a huge accomplishment … on top of that we have record revenue and that puts us in a very strong position. I’ll echo it, a lot of good things are in motion.
“We can now see ourselves in a place beyond ‘Financially Fit.'”
In late 2020, council endorsed a plan to cut nearly $15 million from the city budget, effectively completing the longer-term plan to ease in tax hikes and cost containment to retire a once $24-million need from reserves by 2025.
That “accelerated Financially Fit” effort was coupled with new dividend and reserve policies, and pushed for by then councillor Phil Turnbull and returning councillor Darren Hirsch. But it was also debated hotly by voters.
Cuts, economic development, as well as the city’s handling of the COVID pandemic – which hit the Hat hard in the fall – positioned a “change” campaign for a major win in the October election.
A record 33 candidates vied for eight council seats.
Incumbent mayor Ted Clugston left office after eight years as mayor. Council veteran Julie Friesen did not seek re-election, ending a political career that began in 1989.
For the first time in memory, an elected official at the city died in office. Two-term councillor Jim Turner died the day after nominations closed and still received 371 votes despite Turner’s family asking voters refrain from such a tribute.
Clark said key items in 2022 would be economic development and developing a city “environmental road map,” which has been discussed for several years.
“Looking at non-economic items, like COVID, mental health and housing, we’ll be trying to grab hold of some of those issues and make a positive change in the community,” she said.
During 2021, Hatters also saw an end to the 30-year-old City Centre Development Agency when that group disbanded.
The city’s Unit 17 power plant is moving toward commissioning in the late winter of 2022, and administrators said in a late year overview that planning for a next generation asset, to be known at Unit 18, will begin once it is complete.
Work on the final phases of berms at Industrial Avenue and the community of Harlow was completed this past fall, about eight years after a major berm-building campaign was begun after the 2013 flood.
The city contracted out operations at the Veiner Centre to the Kirby Centre.
The ongoing well abandonment program collected tens of millions of dollars in federal funds, including $18 million alone for the Manyberries oil field.
