Medicine Hat Minute: Fire Investigation, Gas Awards, and Byelection Date Set

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

This Week In Medicine Hat:

• There will be a City Council meeting today. The meeting begins with a closed session at 3:45 pm, while the public portion of the meeting begins at 6:30 pm. Agenda items for the closed session include a collective bargaining update, a proposed Intermunicipal Committee Coordinator, and the Monarch Theatre. During the public meeting, Council will discuss Medicine Hat’s participation in the Strong Towns organization’s Community Action Lab pilot project. Also on the agenda is the City’s potential purchase of a residential property at 817 2nd Street SE - the only property not owned by the City on that block.
  
  
• Also this evening at 6:30 pm (presumably as part of the main meeting) there will be a Medicine Hat City Council organizational meeting to discuss appointments of Council members to standing and special committees, as well as external boards.
  
  
• The Emergency Advisory Committee will meet on Tuesday at 1:30 pm. There are two After Action Reviews to assess the 2022 flood response exercise and the July 2022 severe wind incident. The Energy and Infrastructure Committee will meet on Thursday at 3:30 pm. No agenda is available for this meeting yet.

Last Week In Medicine Hat:

• Newly elected Premier Danielle Smith announced that she will run in the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding in a byelection. MLA Michaela Frey stepped aside so that Smith could have an opportunity to join her caucus in the Legislature. The NDP has announced Gwendoline Dirk as a candidate, and former Mayor of Brooks and Alberta Party Leader Barry Morishita will run in the riding as well. The byelection takes place November 8th.
  
  
• The City’s gas utility department won three national awards - the Corporate Safety Award for Employee Safety, the Corporate Safety Award for Vehicular Safety, and the Michael Mulcahy Award for Excellence and Innovation in Customer Care and Service. The awards recognize the department's perfect employee safety scores and the reduction in vehicle damages over the past year, as well as its superior customer service.
  
  
• Medicine Hat Fire and Emergency Services completed its investigation into the September 16th fire at The Royal. While the blaze does not appear suspicious, some items have been sent to a third-party organization for forensic testing, which will take some time. An investigation into a second fire, which started on October 2nd, is still ongoing.

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