Lethbridge Minute: Police Reviews, Monument Reviews, and Added Taxes on Businesses

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

This Week In Lethbridge:

• It's going to be a busy week for Council, starting with a jampacked City Council meeting at 1:30 pm on Tuesday. Council will be passing the standard tax bylaw for 2021, but also passing Business Improvement Area taxes. Business Improvement Areas claim to represent the interests of businesses in their local community, like a Chamber of Commerce, a guild, or other forms of business associations. But Business Improvement Areas are different in one big way - they are compulsory organizations that all businesses in the area must join and must fund through a compulsory tax set by the BIA and collected by City Council. At 4:00 pm, after the City Council meeting, there will also be a Public Hearing.
  
  
• On Wednesday at 1:30 pm, there will be an Economic Standing Policy Committee which will receive numerous presentations from several departments and City Managers regarding Capital Improvement projects. Some of these projects include updates to the Police Master Plan, upgrades to the Lethbridge Public Library, the Galt Museum, and more.
  
  
• On Thursday at 1:30 pm, there will be a meeting of the Governance Standing Policy Committee which will receive several presentations from various city managers and departments.

Last Week In Lethbridge:

• The Lethbridge Police Service have submitted an Action Plan presenting the changes that were made to address the incidents that occurred within the organization involving the unlawful surveillance of MLA Shannon Phillips. The Action Plan was requested by the provincial Minister of Justice, Kaycee Madu, and a summary is available to view here.
  
  
• The Cultural and Social Standing Policy Committee considered the City's proposed Monument Policy Review. The City wants to come up with a new plan to review whether existing monuments perpetuate harm to underrepresented populations, and ensure that future commemorative practices are diverse, inclusive, and include stories from underrepresented populations. We did receive confirmation that City staff clearly have specific existing monuments in their sights ("some of the monuments we need to address"). The City will review the Policy and report back to Council with next steps in about 6 months.
  
  
• The Premier announced that COVID restrictions will ease once half of Alberta's population is immune. Exactly how that will be calculated remains unknown, however. Do those who've had COVID count towards the total? How about those with natural immunity? More transparency and clearer criteria would be appreciated by all. Either way, the Premier believes every adult will have been offered at least a first dose by the end of June, and restrictions should be gone by summer.

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