City council has opted to explore the idea of creating a municipally-controlled corporation to handle operations of the energy division, among a few options on the table after a third-party business review in 2024.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
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Court documents, debate and even formal decisions of city council to censure Mayor Linnsie Clark point to a fractious working relationship between the city’s chief elected official, other councillors and top administrators in 2024.
It’s the Medicine Hat News story of the year, and comes one year after a widespread protest against high power prices and the city’s publicly owned utility company made top headlines in 2023.
A list of other major News stories in Medicine Hat over the last 12 months:
– A late year tabling of a report on the future of the city’s energy business suggests a municipally-controlled corporation owned by the city could provide better management and strategy for the 120-year-old company;
– Atlantis Research Lab told the News in the spring that it successfully tested a high-altitude rocket system at CFB Suffield toward the eventual goal of developing a vehicle capable of reaching outer space;
– The Medicine Hat Tigers launched a city-backed bid to host the 2026 Memorial Cup tournament at Co-op Place, but hopes were dashed in early December when the event was awarded to Kelowna;
– Premier Danielle Smith told business audiences in March that the Hat, with its own power company and other advantages, could be a top candidate to attract high-tech investment;
– The Aurora Sun greenhouse was repurposed to grow ornamental flowers and vegetable seedlings by Aurora-subsidiary Bevo Farms, which asked for, but was denied, an early tax farm-class reclassification that will deeply drive down the facility’s tax bills in 2025;
– The Saamis Solar Park in the Hat’s north end, was approved by regulators in July, and then subject of a conditional sale between the city’s energy division and private, Ireland-based developer DP Energy. The sale of the largest solar array in an urban municipality in Canada is now before regulators;
– The South Alberta Light Horse headed off a change in name last spring after advocates lobbied against re-designating the local reserve unit as a part of the “King’s Own Calgary Regiment.”
