Medicine Hat Minute: Issue 259

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

📅 This Week In Medicine Hat: 📅

• City Council is meeting today and one of the major items on the agenda is a vote on second and third readings of the new Land Use Bylaw - a city-wide zoning overhaul that replaces the existing framework with 21 land use districts (up from 18), 139 use definitions (up from 69), and four residential density tiers in place of the existing single residential category. A public hearing is being held before the vote, with many written submissions already received from the public. The most significant policy change concerns high-impact land uses: - under the new bylaw, emergency shelters, transitional housing, addiction treatment facilities, and supervised consumption sites would be placed into a Direct Control district, requiring Council approval on a case-by-case basis rather than being permitted or discretionary across the city as a whole. Administration is recommending approval.
  
  
• Also on today's agenda, Council is being asked to approve a $1,057,000 emergency budget increase for the City's gas meter replacement program, bringing the 2026 budget from $679,000 to $1,736,000 - a 155% increase funded from Capital Reserves. Compliance sampling confirmed earlier this year that three groups of residential gas meters manufactured in 2013 and 2014 are no longer approved by Measurement Canada for continued service. The City must replace all affected meters by December 31st, 2026 or risk enforcement penalties of $250 to $1,000 per instance and - more critically - could lose the Measurement Canada registration that authorizes it to bill customers for natural gas distribution services at all. 
  
  
• Council is also considering a report on electric utility service upgrades for backyard and secondary suite development. When a homeowner adds a backyard suite or secondary suite, the electrical service connection often needs to be upgraded at an average cost of about $2,800 per property. Administration analyzed four alternative financing models - a grant or rebate, a financing charge added to property taxes, a local improvement tax, and an investment contribution program - and recommended against all of them. The existing approach is a five-year, 100% municipal property tax exemption on new suites, valued at roughly $2,240 to $6,000 per property, depending on suite type, which Administration says is comparable to the typical upgrade cost. The cost-causation principle in utility regulation prevents the City from spreading upgrade costs across all ratepayers. Council is being asked to confirm that no additional direct subsidy is warranted.
  
  
• Council is also receiving an information update on the City's food waste organics composting file - and the numbers behind it make clear why it is on the agenda. Medicine Hat's landfill is projected to reach capacity around 2039, and without a diversion strategy the City would face costs of approximately $10 million to develop a new landfill cell or potentially over $300 million for an entirely new landfill. A 2024-2025 food waste pilot involving approximately 4,000 households found a 30% reduction in food waste going into garbage carts and a 12% increase in organic material being diverted. Administration engaged with a regional composting partner and will present options - including a potential city-wide organics program - as a budget option during 2027-2028 budget deliberations. No vote is being taken today; this item is for information only.
  
  
• Construction begins today on a new $22-million electrical substation in southwest Medicine Hat located west of Gershaw Drive and Highway 3 along the city's southwestern municipal boundary. The project, approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) in 2025, is designed to route power from the river valley power complex south to the Highway 3 entrance and east into the south end, supporting growth in the area and improving long-term power reliability. The substation is expected to come online by spring 2027. The City began searching for a site in 2019, but two proposed locations were both rejected - one after resident opposition and one after the AUC ruled the City had not demonstrated additional power management was needed. The project was ultimately approved in the 2023-24 City budget. Separately, Council recently approved a $21-million budget increase to fund a modernization strategy for three existing substations nearing end of service life, though parts delays mean that work likely will not begin until 2028 or 2029.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

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