Medicine Hat Minute: Issue 264

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

📅 This Week In Medicine Hat: 📅

• City Council meets today at 6:30 pm, and one of the major items on the agenda is a vote to approve the City's 2027-2030 Strategic Plan. The plan sets four priorities to guide budgets and decisions over the next four years: fiscal responsibility, economic growth through asset expansion, organizational effectiveness and reliable services, and strong community connections. Under it, Council commits to evaluating every decision against whether it can be sustained "without significant tax and rate pressure", and the plan's goals include ensuring low property tax increases, exploring priority-based budgeting, and publishing performance dashboards. The document notes that while 77% of residents perceive good value for their tax dollars, budget pressures and reliance on reserves create risks to the City's long-term financial sustainability. Other goals include a decision on the Arena lands, advancing the Saamis Solar project, improving permit processing times, and developing an AI and technology governance framework. 
  
  
• Also coming to a vote tonight is Councillor Bill Cocks' "Water Not Coal" motion, first raised at Council last month. The motion would direct Mayor Linnsie Clark to send a letter on behalf of Council to the Premier, the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, and the Minister of Municipal Affairs, expressing Council's concern about any coal-related activity that could jeopardize watershed protection and drinking water security. It argues that coal exploration and mining raise concerns about water quality, runoff, land disturbance, tailings, and cumulative impacts on downstream users and the farm economy. Supporting material provided to Council notes that at least 28 Alberta municipalities, including the province's four largest cities, have raised concerns about coal and water. The vote comes just days after musician Corb Lund's provincial Water Not Coal petition, which called for a ban on all new coal mining in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains, failed when its signatures were verified last week. Elections Alberta says only 172,088 of the more than 196,000 submitted signatures could be verified, falling short of the 177,732 required for a citizen initiative petition.
  
  
• Also on tonight's Council agenda is a request to donate the City-owned property at 301 Spencer Street SE to the Miywasin Friendship Centre, along with a $412,000 transfer from capital reserves. The 1.3-acre parcel of surplus municipal land would host the Miywasin Seniors Housing Project, a 16 to 20 unit affordable and subsidized housing development for Indigenous Elders. Because City policy requires the land budget to be kept whole when property is sold to a non-profit below market value, the $412,000 transfer would compensate the Land and Real Estate department for the parcel's fair market value, as determined by a 2025 market assessment. The City has spent about $61,500 on the property over the years, including the original purchase of an adjacent house in 1979, its demolition in 2022, and servicing work. Miywasin needs to own the land to apply for federal and provincial housing grants, and has demonstrated funding sources for two-thirds of the project. The deal includes a buy-back clause - if Miywasin cannot secure government grants within 24 months, obtain development permits within 12 months, or start construction within 18 months of permits, the City can repurchase the land for $1.
  
  
• Tonight's Council meeting also includes a public hearing on a bylaw that would remove the municipal reserve designation from about two acres of City land so it can be sold to the Department of National Defence. The federal department has leased roughly 5 acres of City land spanning 2 parcels since 1977, and the fenced site, which contains an armoury, has been used by the department since the 1940s. It is now seeking to buy the leased land outright, and a newly subdivided parcel matching the leased area has received conditional approval. To keep the amount of reserve land in the area unchanged, about 2 acres of unused City land next door would be designated as municipal reserve in exchange. Administration says survey and subdivision costs will be fully recovered from the federal government when the sale closes, and no written submissions were received ahead of the hearing.
  
  
• Council will also receive the City's latest tri-annual financial report at tonight's meeting, covering the first four months of 2026. The tax-supported deficit stood at $24.9 million at April 30th, which was $2.3 million better than budget, and the year-end deficit is now projected to be $1.7 million instead of the $6.8 million budgeted, mostly due to anticipated investment income. Administration says the improvement is partly offset by lower court fine revenue, higher Fire and Emergency Services salaries expected from ongoing contract negotiations, and the loss of WestJet's air service. The report also discloses that $549,000 in bonuses has been paid to 47 people this year in the City's non-tax-supported departments, and that the City's total headcount is 1,505, including 65 vacant positions. The City's outstanding debt stands at $460 million, or 52% of revenue, below its internal 70% threshold, while its investment portfolio has a market value of $857.7 million and has returned 3.96% so far this year. 

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

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