Lethbridge Minute: Issue 292

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

📅 This Week In Lethbridge: 📅

• The Community Issues Committee meets tomorrow at 1:30 pm, and its agenda includes amendments to four downtown redevelopment projects that receive municipal property-tax breaks under the City's Targeted Redevelopment Incentive Policy. Administration is recommending larger incentives for two of them after construction costs climbed. A project at 202 5 Street South, where the estimate rose from $9 million to $20 million, would see its tax cancellation grow from about $1,086,000 over nine years to about $2,108,000 over eleven years, while a project at 605 5 Street South and 510 6 Avenue South, now estimated at $14.6 million, would rise from about $919,000 to about $1,123,000. The other two, on 13 Street South, are worth about $617,000 and $904,000 and are seeking only extensions of their commencement deadlines to September 2028. All four developers have asked to push back their start dates by roughly two years. 
  
  
• The Committee will also consider adopting a functional planning study for the 9 Avenue South and 10 Avenue South corridors near Chinook Regional Hospital, a document that would guide future road spending in the area. Administration recommends the version that includes single-lane roundabouts at four intersections, along with curb extensions, flashing pedestrian beacons and a multi-use pathway on the north side of 10 Avenue South. The report notes the roundabouts could require some property acquisition, utility relocation and tree removals, and it acknowledges that residents unfamiliar with roundabouts may object. No bike lanes or dedicated cycling infrastructure will be included in any future design, which the report attributes to earlier Council direction. The study does not commit any money on its own. Specific projects would be funded later through the City's capital budgets.
  
  
• The Committee will also consider a request to add the inscription "AFGHANISTAN 2001-2014" to the Lethbridge Cenotaph, the community's main war memorial. The application came from the Royal Canadian Legion General Stewart Branch No. 4, which would cover the full cost, quoted at $878.85, so there is no financial impact on the City. The wording would match that used at the National War Memorial in Ottawa and would recognize Canadians who served in the Afghanistan mission. Administration reports letters of support from local veterans and military organizations and recommends approval. The Committee's recommendation would go to Council, which has final authority over changes to monuments on City land.
  
  
• Also on the agenda is updated wording for the City's policy on courtesy use of municipal facilities and services, which sets out when City departments can provide free or discounted use of City spaces and services. Administration says the policy was overdue for review and has been rewritten to standardize how departments handle such requests and to close gaps in the current process. Government Relations developed the changes with Risk and Controls, Legal Services, Treasury and Finance, Community Services and Lethbridge Transit. If the Committee agrees, the updated policy would go to Council for adoption.
  
  
• Mayor Blaine Hyggen says the City's contract with the Province for ambulance service will not be renewed when it expires on September 30th, leaving the future of Lethbridge's integrated fire and EMS model unresolved. City Council has refused to accept the Province's proposed funding terms, which would require the City to cover any costs above a provincial benchmark rate that Hyggen says is set too low. Administration estimates that accepting the model would cost the City about $4.2 million in 2028 and $4.6 million in 2029, with the figure growing each year. The Government of Alberta paused its approach in June and is conducting a third-party review of the benchmark rate, which is not expected to be finished until late September. A six-month transition means the integrated service stays in place until March 31st, 2027, after which the Province would have to arrange ambulance service if no new agreement is reached. Hyggen maintains that health care is a provincial responsibility and that residents will not be left without emergency medical service.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

Elections Alberta has moved up the deadline to apply for a special ballot for Alberta’s October 19th referendum from October 9th to September 25th, citing an expected surge in last-minute requests.

The agency has already received about 290,000 vote-by-mail applications, compared with fewer than 60,000 during the 2023 provincial election.

If you'd like a special ballot, you can find out more here:

🪙 This Week’s Sponsor: 🪙

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