2024 had challenges and much to be positive about
By Lethbridge Herald on December 21, 2024.
FROM THE HALL
Blaine Hyggen – Mayor of Lethbridge
I want to begin this month with a sincere Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all our Lethbridge residents!
Thank you to our community for continuing to be a source of optimism. I’m always so proud of how we show up for each other. Family and friends always help to spark the magic of the holiday season and I hope you and your loved ones can share in this joy. I know I’m looking forward to celebrating this special time of year with my family and friends.
This, of course, will be the final monthly column installment of 2024 – a year which has certainly had plenty of items on the go throughout.
Earlier this week, I had the wonderful opportunity sit down for a series of year-end interviews individually with each of our local media outlets. I want to thank each of them for asking questions on the challenges we are facing as a community, but also for the chance to reflect and highlight all the good news stories and positivity happening in Lethbridge.
They asked about the Lethbridge and District Exhibition (LDE), economic challenges, physician recruitment and long-term water issues, among other topics, as well as what the future may hold for our great city.
LDE has certainly been the top discussion topic in the community recently, and we spent several hours on it during our meeting last week before coming to a decision. After lengthy discussions and evaluating multiple options, there will be no additional tax increase in 2025. With the approval of LDE’s $4.1 million annual operating budget, city council will balance the 2025-26 budget using existing contingencies and one-time funding. In addition, Council passed a motion to refinance the debt related to the construction of the Agri-food Hub & Trade Centre to save $15 million in interest during the next 10 years. The original loan was for 30 years, so this is major improvement for the long-term financial impact to our taxpayers.
As I stated in that news release, we know an additional tax increase was not something our community was in support of. In the end, there is no win-win option. Our contingency and surplus funding is there for emergencies and that is what we were faced with. I’m confident that during the next two years we can continue to find cost savings and efficiencies to reduce the money needing to operate the Agri-food Hub.
I want to re-iterate that the Agri-food Hub & Trade Centre is a world-class facility that presents tremendous opportunity for our community. Council has been, and continues to be, supporters of this project. It’s important that we protect the significant financial investment the City has made in this project, as well as the investments the provincial government and other funders have made in our community.
Again, this was not an easy process. But it was another example of the great efforts displayed by city council and City administration to achieve the best possible result for the community, based on what we were facing.
On that note, our Communications and Engagement team recently invited all current council members to share their thoughts on the first three years of this term. The Catching up with Council series provided individual updates to the public directly from members of council and showcased how complex and time consuming the roles are.
Read or re-read all the stories on the City website.
As we start to wind down and look ahead to 2025, here is a quick refresher list of some of the other good news pieces from 2024:
* Continued advocacy toward a local lab for cardiac catheterization, a common method used to diagnose and treat various heart issues such as clogged arteries. Currently, Lethbridge residents must travel to Calgary for this treatment. Thanks to the hard work of Dr. Sayeh Zielke (who received a Key to the City last week), the Alberta Government has supported the planning of a new cath lab in Lethbridge, contributing $2 million to the project in the 2023 budget. This planning work is now complete, and the project is moving on to the next phase which will include determining the scope, schedule and budget.
* Ongoing physician recruitment efforts, including presenting to various other municipal councils throughout southern Alberta.
* Support for the University of Lethbridge’s Rural Medical Teaching School
* Continuing supports for the business community.
* Work on expanding capacity at the water treatment plant.
* Action on water conservation.
* Working with the province and supporting shelter expansion and supportive housing builds.
* Efforts towards enhancing social supports including housing projects and the encampment strategy.
* Supporting a Climate Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan.
* Student retention with support for the City Scholars partnership program with the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge Polytechnic.
I plan to recap all of these, as well as information on many other topics, at the next Mayor’s State of the City (SOC) address – which will be hosted by the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce on January 16, 2025.
In addition to the SOC, I want to remind our residents that we have many other ways for community members to stay informed. They include:
* This Mayor’s monthly column for the City website and the Lethbridge Herald that highlights the great things happening in our community.
* Our City of Lethbridge website, which includes the news subscription and closures pages.
* City council and Standing Policy Committee meetings, which are open to the public. Agendas are published here a week ahead of each meeting.
* All council news at https://www.lethbridge.ca/news/categories/council/
* Recaps of each council meeting with Council Highlights
* Our City of Lethbridge engagement website at GetinvolvedLethbridge.ca, which seeks feedback and has information about coming projects
* 311, via call or chat, to have your questions answered.
And to close out this month and this year, I’d like to take another opportunity to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a safe and healthy new year. As we head into 2025, we will continue advocacy efforts and continue working towards making Lethbridge the best city it can be.
As always, please be safe and kind to one another.
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Blaine Hyggen – Mayor of Lethbridge:
Representing The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight