City Notebook: The name game

By COLLIN GALLANT on June 10, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Cabinet making is a curious business which can or not telegraph priorities of a just-elected government, or one in a refresh.

Premier Danielle Smith, of Brooks-Medicine Hat, named a cabinet Friday. She does lead it, after all, but the absence of a Hatter with portfolio leaves Rob Renner as the last Hat-based MLA that was also a minister.

He ran Environment, before it was Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, then Environment and Water, or was it Environment and Protected Places? Parks was in there as well at some point.

Each addition or deletion signals something about the virtues the government sees as important. Some might argue that’s ‘virtue signalling,’ but we’ll digress.

For a while now the portfolio names have morphed and changed (there’s no more labour ministry, for example… it’s Jobs, Economy and Trade now, and the minster is Matt Jones).

So, follow the issues, not the titles.

In terms of issues for the Hat, two key ones from a City of Medicine Hat’s standpoint are power lines and natural gas (essentially meaning petrochemical diversification), and they don’t have an obvious home.

Jason Kenney minted an associate ministry position for Electricity and Natural Gas, and charged it to Dale Nally, who provided updates every so often that more updates were coming.

Last fall Smith created an “economic corridors” position (to handle items like Taber’s burgeoning economic outlook, but probably also keep the heat up on the federal government vis a vis pipelines).

Irrigation also got added as a stated priority in the last cabinet. Notably, Nate Horner, the now second-term MLA, stabilized the ag and irrigation portfolio last term, and is now leaned on heavily as the new finance minister.

That puts Brian Jean into Energy and Minerals (rare earth minerals are all over the business pages these days), who has a lot to handle on energy alone.

There is an Affordability and Utilities Minister in Lethbridge’s Nathan Neudorf, who may attempt to see if you can have both at the same time.

Smith, by the way, promised a major review of power rates in the province, both here during the 2022 byelection and since, though she’s likely talking about transmission fees that Hatters don’t pay.

As for rate reviews, the city council promised one too.

Budget bits

Gleaned from this week’s release of the city’s financial results to April 30:

– Carbon levy paid to the province at the city power plant is expected to be $6.4 million.

– City lot sales totalled one in the first four months of the year (the whole-year forecast was 20 or so) and the revised estimate is 15.

– As well, the higher visibility requirements for photo radar could lead to fewer tickets and an expectation of $450,000 less in fine transfers back from the province.

It’s not all bad news however, reports the treasury, which says the flips and flops in markets have led to the odd situation where $200 million in short term cash holdings are outperforming some longer-lived investments.

The upshot is a $2.4-million expected operating surplus this year.

Phew

Organizers of the Newell Pro Rodeo exhaled on Friday after the fairground rides accompanying this weekends festivities in Brooks were cleared by safety inspectors. The inspections were ordered after injuries at a fair in Stony Plain last weekend.

A look ahead

Council’s public services committee meets Monday to hear, among other issues, a push for funding to cover emergency medical response by city fire crews.

The city’s utility committee meets Thursday.

100 years ago

City council approved a civic holiday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of Medicine Hat,” the News reported in June 1923. The June 27 event would be staged by the Agricultural Society.

Council also approved the disposal of several fleet autos, ordered one car be turned into a truck for use by the electric department and another be made available to the mayor (with the key kept in the mayor’s office to discourage personal use).

The city urged water conservation and to boil drinking water as plant works were being cleared of debris in high water conditions. Higher communities had no service and lower sections relied on delivery by cart.

A new bylaw in Moose Jaw barred the sale of gasoline on the Sabbath Day.

Canadian cattle from experimental farms including Lethbridge were purchased by agents for King George in order to populate the estate at Sandringham.

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.