Lethbridge Minute: Downtown Dragons, Housing Affordability, and Unwelcome Land Speculation

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

This Week In Lethbridge:

• City Council is clearly still busy chasing summer, as while there were originally two meetings scheduled for this week, they've both been cancelled.
  
  
• The meetings cancelled were an Audit Committee meeting originally planned for 1:30 pm on Wednesday, and a Civic Works Standing Policy Committee meeting planned for 1:30 pm on Tuesday. As of today, City Council is scheduled to return next week, though perhaps those meetings will be cancelled as well? We'll let you know!
  
  
• The Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce is looking for feedback from local business owners and operators on whether the City should make COVID vaccines mandatory for in-person access to government services or non-essential businesses and events. What do you think the City should do?

Last Week In Lethbridge:

• City Council could have made Lethbridge more attractive to entrepreneurs and to new business by lowering taxes and cutting wasteful spending but instead, they've decided to whip out the taxpayer-funded credit card for a "Dragons Den"-style competition that will see entrepreneurs compete for a year of free rent in Lethbridge's downtown core. Would a year's free rent be nice for whoever wins the completion? Sure! But helping create a better business environment for every business should be the priority.
  
  
• The City has tightened their control over City-owned land after Council moved to deter real estate speculators from buying City-owned industrial land with the intention of flipping it to sell for a higher value. Under the new system, purchasers of City-owned Industrial land will be required to develop the land within a five-year period or relinquish their ownership and sell the land back to the City for the lesser of the original purchase price or market value.
  
  
• Finally, City Council is also eyeing funds from the City's COVID-19 rent subsidy as a way to give the Lethbridge Housing Authority a $90,023 tax break. While the Lethbridge Housing Authority cites inflation as their primary pain point, Council fails to recognize that inflation is also impacting the ratepayer as well.

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