Medicine Hat Minute: Supply Chains, Recreation Centres, and Towne Square Plans

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

This Week In Medicine Hat:

• Today there will be a meeting of the Public Services Committee at 8:00 am. The meeting has a packed agenda, including a community development orientation, first reading of bylaw 3506 (a skateboard bylaw), a vote to make the Emergency Advisory Committee a standing committee, and the Managing Director’s service area update.
  
  
• On Tuesday there will be a Corporate Services Committee meeting at 12:00 pm. Council will receive a number of presentations including a procurement overview, and an update on the recipients of the 2022 Community Vibrancy Grant, before moving in-camera (in secret).
  
  
• On Thursday there will be an Energy and Infrastructure Committee meeting at 3:30 pm - no agenda has been posted as of time of writing.

Last Week In Medicine Hat:

• Final additions to the proposed "Towne Square" were approved at Wednesday's City Planning Commission and include landscaping aspects, decorative barriers, and 16 metal sea-cans that will be rented to vendors during "pop up" markets. The construction of the “Towne Square” began last summer following a $2 million grant awarded by Ottawa and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
  
  
• The future of two City recreation centres could now be decided later this month after Council delayed a budget amendment for a second time on Monday. The delay comes as Council calls for more detailed budget figures on a “line-by-line basis”. It should be interesting to see what City Council ultimately decides, as this was an issue in the election. Mayor Linnsie Clark, who supported the budget pause on Monday, campaigned on favouring local neighbourhood facilities when financially viable, rather than regionalization and conglomeration with new facilities.
  
  
• Finding that special gift for that special someone in your life for Christmas might be a little trickier than usual this year. Well, at least according to retailers who point to increasing supply shortages on a number of items ranging from toys to car seats. It’s not just the small stores that are feeling the impacts either; large retailers are feeling the crunch as well. It seems the only thing there's no shortage of is supply-chain problems.

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