Mayoral candidates share thoughts on fighting stagnation, stimulating business

By ZOE MASON on October 17, 2025.

Over the past decade, growth in Medicine Hat has stagnated relative to other parts of the province. The city experienced a 35 percent increase in the population’s proportion of seniors and a minor decrease in the population’s proportion of working-age adults in the period 2011-2021.

Residents want their next government to address these troubling trends in the city’s growth by attracting new businesses, residents and jobs. Candidates running for mayor have plenty of ideas about spurring economic development in the city.

Incumbent Linnsie Clark says she has been working across her first term to foster regional solutions to the stagnation problem.

“Successful economic development depends on a strategy grounded in evidence and clear success measures. The Southeast Alberta Economic Opportunity Strategy, Implementation Framework and Action Plan, developed collaboratively by six local governments over this term, is a promising start,” she said in the News’s online election guide.

Going forward, Clark says she would aim to transition away from fragmented, bureaucratic systems to a more human-centred design that prioritizes experience for residents and industries.

Candidate Andy McGrogan says economic development has to incorporate both regional and local perspectives. He says the province supports the approach outlined in the regional strategy developed over the last term.

“Locally, there is a lot council can do. Step One is to develop a meaningful and detailed Strategic Plan for the city for the next two years,” he said.

This plan would be implemented by the city manager and regularly reviewed to ensure effectiveness. Then, McGrogan says, the city would need to develop and implement an Economic Development Strategy and target businesses that could thrive in Medicine Hat.

Candidate Drew Barnes says he would focus on being Medicine Hat’s cheerleader and salesperson if he were elected.

“Medicine Hat has so much potential. We are located on two major economic corridors, strategically positioned close to the U.S. border with pristine lands and incredible people. We should be an economic powerhouse but have often gotten in our own way,” he said.

Barnes suggests eliminating off-site levies for a period of time to help attract new businesses and jobs for residents. He would also like to see permitting data and timelines better publicized, to increase transparency for prospective developers and investors.

Candidate Kris Samraj says the first step is cutting business taxes.

“Lower business taxes reduce operating costs for all businesses equally, without picking winners and losers,” he said.

He says he thinks incentive programs are inefficient, and tend to play municipalities against one another.

“Incentives might get something built, but if the underlying business case isn’t there the incoming business won’t be sustainable,” he said.

Candidate Alan Rose says that for Medicine Hat to grow, Alberta needs to improve access to U.S. markets.

“The Wildhorse border needs to be developed into a commercial port. Saskatchewan has four commercial ports, B.C. has 16, and we have one in Coutts. If you look at all the manufacturing plants, they spread from Taber to Fort Macleod, all feeding Coutts,” he said.

Candidate Mark Fischer did not participate in the online election guide.

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