Medicine Hat Minute: Integrity Commissioner, Budget Discussions, and a Land Use Survey

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

This Week In Medicine Hat:

• There will be a meeting of the Public Services Committee this afternoon at 3:45 pm. The Committee will hear an update on the Unison program at the Veiner Centre, which supports those aged 50 and older with services and specialty programming. Committee members will also discuss a new grant program designed to make downtown more attractive and safer for residents and visitors. Then, the Managing Director will provide a Service Area Update that includes a Drought Update and Canada Day Update, before the Committee heads into a closed-door meeting for a Community Cooperation Discussion.
  
  
• On Tuesday, at 3:45 pm, Council’s Committee of the Whole will meet to discuss the 2025-26 Budget Deliberations, with a focus on new growth opportunities. No information is available yet as to what those opportunities look like.
  
  
• More information is now available about Prairie Rose Public School Division's new South Alberta Collegiate. The facility will offer diverse programs for flight academy students, athletes, and others, and will include a plane-building workshop, synthetic turf fieldhouse, classrooms, meeting spaces, and a gym. Enhanced programming began in 2018 with the South Alberta Hockey Academy and has since expanded to various sports and aviation programs. The new hub aims to enhance the student experience, and the Division received $600,000 from the Alberta government for the project.

Last Week In Medicine Hat:

• The City has launched a community survey on its land use bylaw. The current version of the bylaw was enacted in 2013, and a revision is underway to align with the Municipal Development Plan adopted in 2020. The survey is available online until July 31st. Feedback will be incorporated into a draft document, after which more public engagement will take place.
  
  
• Council unanimously voted to approve a recommendation from the City Solicitor’s office, bringing Medicine Hat one step closer to establishing a third-party Integrity Commissioner for complaints against elected officials. The approved recommendation included amending the Code of Conduct Bylaw to open up the complaint process to all residents, workers, and business owners in the city, mirroring Red Deer's model. While there was initially concern about the proposed timeline for implementing these changes being set at March 2025, some Councillors emphasized the importance of taking their time, hiring the right person, and ensuring a thorough process.
  
  
• Updates have been proposed to Medicine Hat's off-site levies bylaw that suggest a 9% increase in fees paid by developers for extending or upgrading infrastructure like pipes and roads to their subdivisions. The updates are being driven by rising construction costs, and while the list of projects needing funding hasn’t changed since the last off-site levy bylaw update in 2022, the estimated costs for these projects have increased to $408 million. The proposal is scheduled for discussion and potential adoption by Council in July.

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