City Notebook: Was keeping warm always this much?

By COLLIN GALLANT on January 29, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

The big complaint this week in Medicine Hat that’s not medical, societal or philosophical has to be the high price of utilities this winter.

It’s a bit meteorological, these being the colder months and all, but Hatters are really hot over the high cost of keeping the furnace going and the lights on.

That’s promised to be a bigger discussion going forward from councillors.

There’s talk about reworking how local rates are set, or how bills are laid out, or even redeploying profits from the city power plant to give some relief.

Some Hatters say it’s the most they’ve ever paid, and they might be right (though my personal high point came in the same house in 2007). Why the city charges the average rate, not the lowest, is another talking point.

It’s a fact however, that extremely low gas prices over the last decade have masked rising delivery rates in the meantime. Now gas and power are back to the levels seen in the 2010 range, and the difference is being felt.

There could be a book written about how a utility bill breaks down, and the whole brouhaha may last until spring.

Bits and babs

– The vacant council seat in the County of Forty Mile has been acclaimed by James Babe. His previous claim to fame was being the father of Medicine Hat City Councillor Allison Van Dyke.

– More intrigue from the County of Forty Mile: the latest edition of the Bow Island Commentator includes not just a few articles featuring UCP MLA Joseph Schow. He met with local councils and groups last week, and claims Medicine Hat as his family base, but he is the MLA for the riding of Cardston-Siksika. If you recall, Grant Hunter is the MLA for Taber-Warner, which includes the county in question.

– The Cypress View Foundation has hired a new CAO. Sourav Saha has taken over the position at the seniors housing facility that is jointly operated by city, Redcliff and Cypress County.

– Hat-based artist Linda Gordon will be the focus of a show at the Jasper Centre in Maple Creek until the end of February. Speaking of local artists, the Esplanade is staging a 75-year retrospective on the Hat Art Club, which features a host of familiar names. It concludes March 12.

City Hall is seeking proposals for a new operations contract, lease or sale of the Monarch Theatre. Personally, I’d like to bring back John Wayne matinees, but what’s required here are business plans, folks. So let’s see what serious plans the community can come up with by the Feb. 28 deadline.

A look ahead

The much anticipated parks and rec masterplan will be presented to a special meeting of the public services committee on Monday.

If winter has you down, it’s February as of Tuesday, then soon enough March.

100 years ago

Reorganizing the province’s liquor control measures would be a priority of recently elected Premier Herbert Greenfield, the News reported in late January 1922.

“Public opinion is the strongest factor in the enforcement of any law,” he told a conference of Baptists in Calgary. “(It) is possible only when public opinion is determined upon it, when people are made to feel that laws are on the books to be obeyed.”

CP rail would build a new “mechanical coalling plant” in Medicine Hat in order to speed up freight times.

Lethbridge city council recoiled at a suggestion that gas delivered to the city should cost the same as Calgary’s rates. Certainly, aldermen argued the proximity to gas fields that were also piped to Calgary meant some discount afforded to the 40-cent per thousand foot.

One in every 20 Canadians depended on the cod fisheries in some form for employment, according to a new report.

A co-operative enterprise to establish a “Community Oil Well” in Medicine Hat would apply for incorporation as the well itself reached a depth of 2,000 feet and was producing “much brine and gas” according to engineers.

Walter “Hot Foot” Knox – the former Hatter, Canadian Olympic team coach and brother-in-law of local Ald. B.W. Bellamy, sold his gold-mining claims in northern Ontario for net proceeds of $600,000.

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.