Lethbridge Minute: Mandatory Masks, Indigenous Funding, and Stage Three Soon

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

This Week In Lethbridge:

• It's going to be a really quiet week at City Hall. Originally there were two meetings planned but the Governance Standing Policy Committee meeting that was slated for June 24th has been cancelled.
  
  
• The Economic Standing Policy Committee meeting will proceed as scheduled on June 23rd at 1:30 pm and will include presentations about Clean Energy, Economic Development, Opportunity Lethbridge, and land development
  
  
• The first new Fire Station in Lethbridge in decades opens for calls today. Fire Station No. 5 is located in Watermark in west Lethbridge and will cover an area of about 20,000 people.

Last Week In Lethbridge:

• Alberta hit the 70% first-dose target that meant that the two-week waiting period before Stage 3 started. Coincidentally, that threshold was hit on June 17th, meaning most provincial restrictions will cease on July 1st. The Province hasn't yet officially clarified what they mean by "most restrictions", so we'll keep you updated.
  
  
• Despite the Provincial announcement, Lethbridge Council don't seem to have got the message. While most of the Province will soon return to normal, Council voted against repealing their Temporary Mandatory Face Covering Bylaw within 24 hours of the Province declaring Alberta had entered Stage 3. The motion, introduced by Councillor Hyggen was supported by Councillors Hyggen, Campbell, Mauro, and Parker. Councillor Miyashiro argued that the City should wait until 70% of Albertans have received two-doses of vaccination and he was joined by Mayor Spearman and Councillors Crowson, Carlson, and Coffman, to defeat the motion 4-5.
  
  
• Council does appear to have had a sudden change of heart on one issue, however, with Council opting to speed up funding for its Indigenous Place-Making Strategy. Council cited the recent discovery of a mass grave at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School as the primary reason they opted for the revision. The Strategy will now be funded out of the City's Major Capital Projects Reserve.

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