Lethbridge Minute: Business Survey, Geomatics Investment, and Ward Commission Rescinded

Lethbridge Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Lethbridge politics

This Week In Lethbridge:

• There will be an Organizational Meeting of City Council on Tuesday. The meeting begins with a closed session at 12:30 pm. When it opens up the public at 1:30 pm, Council will discuss changes to the 2023 Council and Standing Policy Committee Calendar and Council Member Appointments to Boards, Commissions and Committees. The main item of note, however, is the plan to rescind the Ward Commission Bylaw. In June, Council decided - contrary to the wishes of Lethbridge voters - not to proceed with a “ward system” electoral process. This may look like the final nail in the coffin for the ward system, but it is Halloween season, and we plan to haunt Council with this until they reverse their decision and do what the voters requested!
  
  
• Also on Tuesday, there will be a regular meeting of City Council. The meeting is scheduled for 1:30 pm - exactly the same time as the Organizational Meeting - but we assume it will immediately follow that meeting. There are two items of Official Business on the agenda - Councillor Schmidt-Rempel is proposing that $25,000 from the Council Contingencies fund be allocated to a childcare needs assessment for the City of Lethbridge and Councillor Dodic is proposing that Administration compile a list of all unsafe and/or dangerous properties.
  
  
• There will be a meeting of the Audit Standing Policy Committee on Wednesday at 1:30 pm. No agenda is available for this meeting yet. A meeting of the Assets and Infrastructure Standing Policy Committee, originally scheduled for Thursday, has been cancelled.

Last Week In Lethbridge:

• The City opened the fifth iteration of its Brighter Together Survey, a way for local businesses to provide feedback to the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Lethbridge BRZ, and Economic Development Lethbridge. The survey results are used to advocate for policy changes, create new initiatives, and monitor yearly trends. The survey, focusing on the health of businesses and future challenges, will remain open until November 17th, with similar questions to the previous survey to track trends and outliers in the data. The results will be released in late 2023 or early 2024. Interested businesses can access the survey online.
  
  
• A training scenario took place at the Lethbridge Courthouse, simulating a mock protest. The City of Lethbridge, Lethbridge Police Service, and Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services, along with journalism students from Lethbridge College and actors from the drama programs at the University of Lethbridge, aimed to enhance teamwork and preparedness for real-life incidents. Planning for the scenario spanned over a year, and it helped identify areas for improvement, with future scenarios planned to further enhance public safety. This was the second training scenario conducted by LPS in the year.
  
  
• TECTERRA, a Canadian non-profit, has invested $5.2 million into several Alberta post-secondary institutions. The University of Lethbridge will receive $1.3 million, and the funding will specifically focus on the geomatics program. The university will use the funding for student awards and faculty development, with the Board of Governors matching a portion for scholarships. Other Alberta institutions to benefit from the investment are the University of Calgary, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).

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