Council showing the city is open for business

By Lethbridge Herald on March 11, 2022.

Editor:

Maybe it’s the gradually disappearing artifacts of COVID.  Or the feeling that winter is slowly melting into spring.  Whatever the reason for newfound enthusiasm, it seems there’s also a new vibe going on at city council.  Maybe, just maybe, Lethbridge is back open for business ,too.   

There are numerous examples of how Lethbridge has become perceived as a place more interested in cultural and social artifices than pesky business.  However, a landmark event occurred in council chambers Tuesday.  A bylaw amendment by neophyte councillor Nick Paladino was passed against the wishes of City management so that a local businessman, Rob Duncan, could simply go about his business.   

For most reasonable residents this would seem like no big deal and hardly newsworthy.  That is until they learn a little bit about the tortured history of this very reasonable measure.  

You see, in the dying days of the last mayor and council, the very same amendment was shot down in flames.  Praise be, with this new council capably led by a pro-business mayor Hyggen, the connection between a healthy small business sector and healthy city tax coffers has finally been made.   

Now Mr. Duncan, to the delight of many of the residents, is free to make application to develop (on a temporary basis), a greatly needed rental storage facility in West Lethbridge.  Although we are still far from being out of the woods when it comes to archaic processes and attitudes at City Hall, we shouldn’t dwell on the negative.  It’s high time we throw the “Open For Business” sign up so more jobs can be created, more taxes can be paid, and more funding for all the services we all demand can be paid for.   

Hopefully this is an idea whose time has come to stay.     

Dale Leier

Lethbridge