Medicine Hat Minute: Issue 271

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

📅 This Week In Medicine Hat: 📅

• City Council voted on August 17th to cut business licence fees for liquor stores, cannabis retailers, restaurants that serve alcohol, and large format retailers, with the changes taking effect January 1st, 2027. The move eliminates the City's Tier 4 licence category, whose fees had risen by 800% since 2025, from an average of about $100 a year to more than $800. Affected businesses will instead pay between $190 and $450, roughly half of current costs, reducing the City's licence revenue by about $150,000 a year. Councillor Bill Cocks, whose motion in May prompted the review, was the only member not to vote in favour, arguing that even the reduced fees are unjustified and that businesses hit by the earlier increases deserve compensation. City staff defended the new pricing as comparable to mid-sized cities like Lethbridge, but told Council they had been directed by past councils to "raise a significant amount of revenue" when fees were hiked in 2025. The Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce backed the decision, and Council also directed Administration to develop a fee-setting philosophy to guide future decisions.
  
  
• At the same meeting, City Council approved the reallocation of $4,005,000 in working capital to cover repairs across 9 power generation and grid projects, with no new funding required. A planned $2-million overhaul of a large steam turbine came in under budget at $1.25 million after the turbine was found to be in good condition, freeing up about $750,000 that will instead help pay for a pumphouse upgrade, a high pressure steam system replacement, and a combustor overhaul. Councillor Ted Clugston, who chairs the Energy, Land and Environment Committee, warned that Council should keep equipment lead times in mind during the upcoming budget cycle, saying a replacement generator could take as long as 10 years to arrive given how few manufacturers there are and the heavy demand from data-centre operators. The reallocation adds to a wider round of electric utility spending: Council approved $13 million in the 2025-26 capital budget to modernize three substations built in 1984, and staff will seek a further $10.45 million next year. Council has also approved borrowing $65.75 million to complete the 75-megawatt first phase of the $131.5-million Saamis Solar project, to be repaid over 25 years.
  
  
• The Medicine Hat Police Service has more than tripled its number of body-worn cameras, from 26 to 86, to meet a provincial rule requiring all frontline officers to wear them. Alberta announced the mandate in March 2023, becoming the first province in Canada to require body cameras for all municipal and First Nations police officers. The service says the expansion is meant to improve transparency, accountability, and public trust. Medicine Hat's program began as a pilot project in 2017 and grew slowly as the service studied costs and storage needs, with each camera costing about $950 plus monthly fees to store the footage. The cameras do not record continuously - officers switch them on for calls, investigations, and arrests, and each unit also saves the 30 seconds of video captured just before activation. 
  
  
• Meanwhile, City staff are examining how artificial intelligence could be used in the City's operations and cybersecurity, and are asking Council to adopt two new technology policies. At a Corporate Services Committee meeting earlier this month, the information technology department said AI could help safeguard digital assets and speed up processes, but IT Director Brad Wile emphasized that significant staff education is needed first, warning that information fed to public AI tools like ChatGPT is effectively given away and can be used to train their models. Staff want Council to adopt a modernized cybersecurity policy alongside a new information technology acceptable use policy that would define acceptable and prohibited uses of AI and IT systems. If approved, both policies would apply to all staff with access to City IT systems, as well as elected officials and contractors. Council is expected to vote on the policies at an upcoming public meeting. 
  
  
• Construction begins today on the City's 2026 trail rehabilitation program, which will rebuild portions of the Carter Crescent, Ross Glen, and East Glen trails in the Ross Creek trail network. The existing asphalt will be removed and reconstructed, and the trails will be widened from 2.5 meters to 3 meters to improve accessibility and increase capacity for active transportation. Crews will also replace outdated signage, repair deteriorated fencing, and replace a culvert to improve drainage. Sections of trail will close as work progresses, with signs posted and users asked to take alternate routes. Weather permitting, the 1.23-kilometer project is expected to run until late October. 

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

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