Medicine Hat Minute: Budget Amendments, Possible Rezoning, and Advisory Group Applications

Medicine Hat Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Medicine Hat politics

This Week In Medicine Hat:

• Council is back to work with a Regular Medicine Hat City Council meeting scheduled for today. The meeting will start at 3:30 pm in a closed session to discuss a number of items including sponsorships and a Truth and Reconciliation Terms of Reference. At 6:30 pm, the meeting will open to the public and will discuss a potential lease agreement and a land sale proposal, receive an initial presentation on the budget update for the 2022 fiscal year, and receive several reports from various City Committees.
  
  
• Residents have until tomorrow to apply to sit on a City commission or advisory group. Once the deadline is closed, placements will be voted on and decided by Council at the end of the year. Many seats need to be filled on multiple committees and interested candidates should contact the City Clerk’s office for more information related to time and other commitments.
  
  
• The 2021 AUMA Convention is set to take place November 17th - 19th, in person, at the Edmonton Convention Centre. The AUMA is the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association - think of it as a kind of union for city governments. Their convention is set to hold discussions on a variety of topics including strategic planning, "working the bureaucracy", cyber security, and drug decriminalization. Premier Jason Kenney, Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver, and NDP leader Rachel Notley are all set to attend and give speeches.

Last Week In Medicine Hat:

• Following Council's closed-session special meeting last Monday, it looks like budget amendments are expected to come sooner rather than later (see above). The changes were suggested in the agenda at the mid-month meeting so that they could be debated this week, rather than waiting another two weeks via the regular meeting.
  
  
• The City is looking for feedback from residents regarding the possible rezoning of the Medicine Hat Speedway. The Medicine Hat Speedway is one of several user groups in the area that's under consideration for potential land-use change, but speedway officials say re-location of their facility isn’t possible and any rezoning would effectively shut them down completely. The City will gather feedback on its "Shape Your City" website until November 24.
  
  
• Medicine Hat could perhaps be home to the world’s largest chess piece thanks to the Medicine Hat Chess Club. Nestled between the library and the Court of Queen’s Bench is a 20-foot 11-inch king-sized (and also king-shaped) chess piece. This beats the current record-holding piece (also a King) in St. Louis which stands at 20 feet and 2 inches. The Medicine Hat Chess Club is planning to be in contact with the Guinness World Records to get official confirmation of whether there is in fact a new king in town.

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