Hyggen says there’s still work to be done

By Lethbridge Herald on January 16, 2025.

Mayor Blaine Hyggen speaks to guests of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce Thursday at his annual State of the City address. Herald photo by Al Beeber

Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Mayor Blaine Hyggen delivered his final State of the City address of this council’s term in office Thursday during a large breakfast meeting hosted by the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce.

Speaking to a packed audience at the Sandman Signature Lodge hotel downtown, Hyggen addressed a wide range of subjects from the Lethbridge and District Exhibition to water and wastewater treatment plant infrastructure issues.

And in a media scrum afterwards, the mayor said he doesn’t feel like his work is yet done and hinted strongly about running for a second term when municipal elections are staged in October.

The mayor talked about the state of the city’s finances, public safety, the encampment strategy and the need for more affordable housing units in Lethbridge. He addressed the investments being made in the expansion of the homeless shelter and the work being done by the province in collaboration with the Lethbridge Housing Authority and Blood Tribe Department of Health to increase shelter beds from about 120 to more than 230.

And he heralded the construction of LHA’s innovative and first-of-its kind in Lethbridge supportive housing facility just a couple of blocks from the shelter on Stafford Drive North.

And he happily made an announcement on physician recruitment efforts to the audience, which had among its members Dr. Sayeh Zielke, the medical director of Chinook Cardiology. She established the clinic here in 2013 and has led efforts for the creation of a catheterization laboratory at Chinook Regional Hospital.

Hyggen said Zielke is expected to get company with eight others joining her in the South Zone in 2025.

Hyggen told the crowd that, according to recent statistics, Lethbridge has the highest percentage of physician attraction per capita in Canada.

He added the Southern Alberta Medial Program that’s being created at the University of Lethbridge will also be a huge asset to the region.

Lethbridge also has attracted 72 new doctors since March of 2022. Those include family doctors and others including anesthesiologists, and doctors specializing in child and adolescent mental health, diagnostic imaging, emergency medicine, geriatics, obstetrics, gynecology and cardiology, said Hyggen.

Municipal governments don’t have jurisdiction over health care in Alberta and work to attract physicians. But because health care greatly impacts residents, council has continued to support efforts to attract and retain medical professionals here, Hyggen said.

He spoke glowingly of Zielke’s efforts to see a cath lab established here and talked about their many meetings with government officials. And he spoke about how he recently gave Zielke the Key to the City on behalf of city council “in recognition of her tireless work to improve and advance cardiac care in southern Alberta.”

Until Zielke accepted a request to visit Lethbridge a decade ago, the city had no cardiologist, he pointed out.

On the subject of public safety, Hyggen said that the Lethbridge Police Service has hired 26 new officers and is now at an almost full complement of 186. Of those, four have been transferred to work in the downtown policing unit.

When comparing figures from January to September of 2024 to the same time frame the year prior, a report from the Lethbridge police commission on Jan. 9 shows overall crime violations decreased by 16 per cent and the total Crime Severity Index score dropped by 17.7 per cent, Hyggen said while thanking LPS Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh for his leadership.

When addressing the Exhibition, Hyggen said raising taxes to pay for its continued operations was not an option for city council and it found other ways to keep LDE running. He talked about the Deloitte report which shed light on the LDE’s operations and financial issues involving the Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre.

He said he could probably spend the entire day talking about the LDE, noting the 2025-26 budget will be dealt with by using existing contingencies and one-time funding which secures operational funding for the LDE team to move forward with critical sales initiatives. New events, sponsors and growing other revenue streams continue to reduce the deficit of the LDE which has already been cut by $4.2 million in the last year.

He also talked about council’s approval of a plan to refinance debt related to the Hub’s construction to save $15 million in interest during the next 10 years from the original 30-year loan, reducing the amortization time by 20 years,

“This is a major improvement for the long-term financial impact to the taxpayers,” he said. “We were loud and clear that a tax increase for LDE was not something our city or community would support. In the end there was truly a no win win option. Our contingency and surplus funding is there for emergencies and this is exactly 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 needed to operate the Agri-Food Hub.”

Hyggen talked about the need to improve water and wastewater treatment capacity for the city and thanked residents for their voluntary water use reduction efforts in 2024 as the city faced a drought which was averted due to timely moisture.

While the worst case scenarios didn’t play out last year, the mayor said the issue of water availability could be one in years to come.

As the city population grows, the process of delivering water and wastewater services to residents and businesses here and in the region becomes a more pressing issue, he said. The water and wastewater treatment systems need substantial capital upgrades and expansion to meet anticipated near- and long-term growth in regional and industrial demands, the mayor said.

On peak days, water treatment demands near 100 per cent of design capacity and the mayor said the City is thankful the province is funding a $2.8-million detailed expansion design cost which will help meet expected water demands in the next five years and beyond, said Hyggen.

Addressing City finances, he said the City is facing taxation, utility, operating and capital pressures. He noted how in 2019, there was a 1.8 per cent municipal tax increase which was the lowest in 20 years. Then a zero per cent increase was maintained to the municipal portion of residential taxes for the following three years to minimize the financial impact of the pandemic on property owners. Council then approved in 2021 a four-year annual tax increase of 5.1 per cent from 2023-26, he recalled.

The City has gotten an update on its Local Government Fiscal Framework from the province, which replaces the Municipal Sustainability Initiatives and in 2025 it is getting estimated capital funding of nearly $14.3 million. In the future, the City’s capital budget will encounter pressures for capital investment so projects will continue to be prioritized, the mayor said.

On the tax bill, the largest share of the municipal portion goes to vital emergency services with police, fire and emergency management services at nearly 38 per cent. Individual property owners may see a tax increase on bills for a number of reasons including a change in property assessment, an increase in the Green Acres Foundation budget or the Alberta school budget, Hyggen pointed out.

Property assessments, he pointed out regarding calls and emails he’s received, are an incredibly complicated subject because of the variables that come into play determining those assessments such as renovations, home features and a hot housing market with assessments based on a home’s market value of July 1 of a previous year.

A shortage of housing also contributes to the increase of home value, he added.

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