Municipally Controlled Corporation idea gets officially rejected by council

By Ryan Dahlman on July 22, 2025.

rdahlman@abnewsgroup.com

The current group of councillors will not decide how the City of Medicine Hat will move forward with plans to create the Municipally Controlled Corporation (MCC) and Rate Review Committee (RRC) Public Hearing as part of its Energy Business Strategic Review –

In the closest possible of votes, 5 to 4 against (Mayor Linnsie Clark, and councillors Alison Knodel, Ramona Robins, Shila Sharps, and Alison Van Dyke), it was decided that council could not push forth with the plans to “transfer management and operations of the City’s electric generation, electric distribution, gas distribution, and energy marketing and business analysis business units to a new corporate entity which the City would create and manage.

Council would have approved a budget amendment in the amount of $4,000,000 to be paid from the energy transition reserve for the purpose of establishing the MCC and carrying out the transactions contemplated in this resolution.

However, the $4 million price tag with it being 97 days away from an election and having this council decide for the future council on what the direction for the City’s plan with energy were two factors cited.

“I have to say that I think that we are too close to an election and with $4 million and whether everybody around the (council table) is sitting here next year or not… what are we bringing the next council with” explained councillor Shila Sharps. “In my mind, we’re putting an almost (massive) responsibility on another council that, number one we should have done a year ago. And that’s, again, not a dig. It’s just my thoughts on it. I would also say that I think that I’ve always thought.

“$4 million is a lot of money where we still don’t have a South Side rec center. We have roads that need to be fixed and infrastructure. There’s a lot of things that $4 million could go to. So I really do think that there needs to be movement in this, but I do think that potentially mimicking or doing a mock setup… I know that sounds almost arbitrary, but I think there’s value in seeing that we could go through the same issues, the same stage games, we would run into any successes or problems without actually having to spend taxpayer dollar and then maybe execute this at a later time. I will also say that as long as a councillor is liable and culpable, then I’m not sure I want to give up my liability at this table.”

In a June public hearing, several speakers called for a halt to both exploring an MCC and a current process to advertise the city’s remaining 500 gas wells for sale to private-sector buyers.

A 2024 report and recommendations from consultant KPMG states the power business and very stable distribution companies would form a strong operating unit of related businesses, while they discouraged including gas production because it would add stress to the financial model.

As currently proposed by City Hall, an MCC would not contain the city’s gas production assets – gas or oil wells and immediate gathering pipeline networks – or other rate-based utilities, such as water, sewer and solid waste. Those rate-based utilities would remain in the city’s environmental utilities department.

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