Team Lethbridge getting ready for advocacy trip
By Lethbridge Herald on October 28, 2024.
CEO of Economic Development Lethbridge Trevor Lewington speaks to Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge executive director Jana MacKenzie during the Team Lethbridge Kickoff lunch Monday at the Sandman Hotel.
Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-GuzmanAlejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
A delegation of community and business leaders known as Team Lethbridge will be heading to Edmonton next week to spend three days advocating for Lethbridge in the Alberta Legislature.
Trevor Lewington, CEO of Economic Development Lethbridge, spoke to media Monday prior to the Team Lethbridge Mission 8 Kickoff and said this will be the eighth time they are heading to the provincial capital to advocate for Lethbridge.
“Every two years we take a bus load of community and business leaders up to the capital and we spend three days basically taking over the legislature building and meeting with ministers, meeting with their department heads to advocate for Lethbridge,” said Lewington.
He said the idea is to show them everything Lethbridge has to offer, while also making sure they put Lethbridge on their radar for future grant opportunities and capital projects.
“There are 19 partner organizations participating in this mission. They pay their own way. So, this is not taxpayer funded. Each organization pays the bills. But it’s community leaders in Lethbridge wanting to go directly to Edmonton and tell the Lethbridge story,” said Lewington.
When talking about the effectiveness of those advocacy meetings in Edmonton, Lewington said they have received feedback from various governments over the years, that this approach is very effective.
“First of all, is very convenient for you if you are a Minister as you can have one meeting and connect with all kinds of organizations all at the same time,” said Lewington.
He explained the session that took place on Monday at the Sandman Hotel was to practice what they will say when the various organizations arrive to Edmonton.
“We want to make sure everybody is reading from the same page, because we want a unified message. That’s the other thing that makes it easy for the government is we go up there with our priority list and the government knows they’re getting Lethbridge’s key priorities from a broad cross section of the community,” said Lewington.
He said one of those key priorities is water and wastewater, as Lethbridge is running out of capacity for both potable water and wastewater.
“And as the city grows both in population and for new industry, that’s something that needs to be solved long term,” said Lewington.
He explained the government has provided some initial money for some studies, but ultimately, they are going after multiple hundreds of millions of dollars of capital.
“Some of the other issues, are wraparound services for some of the social challenges, housing is affecting every community. But we want to make sure the government clearly understands what some of the unique differences are here in Lethbridge,” said Lewington.
When it comes to tangible results from their advocacy efforts from previous trips to Edmonton, Lewington said it is hard to pinpoint because a lot of the times there have been broad discussions.
“But projects like the university’s destination project, which became Science Commons, was a key focus of the Group a number of years ago. And ultimately that project was funded,” said Lewington.
He said at the time, the Minister of Advanced Education was very impressed that it was everybody in the room other than the university that was talking about that project.
“We’ve also had a number of pilot projects. Lethbridge is the right size of community to do some exciting things and sometimes test out policies. So often the province has done some pilot projects in Lethbridge before they do that elsewhere,” said Lewington.
Team Lethbridge will be departing Tuesday and will be staying in Edmonton until Thursday and Lewington said they will be hosting a reception for the government’s MLAs on Tuesday night, as well as a reception for the opposition MLAs on Wednesday night, because they can be the government at some point down the road.
“We’re friends with everyone. This is not a political event. We’re there basically to have an impact and make sure all elected officials know what Lethbridge it’s all about,” said Lewington.
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When it comes to tangible results from their advocacy efforts from previous trips to Edmonton, Lewington said it is hard to pinpoint because a lot of the times there have been broad discussions.
Normal expectation from the wine, cheese and travel club. Hard to pinpoint. What, nobody taking notes and analyzing the use of taxpayer funding??