Ward system drops off city council radar

By Lethbridge Herald on December 4, 2025.

Alexandra Noad
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Discussions on Lethbridge adopting a ward system have come to a screeching halt as city council rejected a motion which would have brought the matter to the Governance Standing Policy Committee to look into.

The motion was brought forth by councillors Jenn Schmidt-Rempel and Belinda Crowson this week after hearing many community members share their interest in adopting a ward system during the election campaign.

City council did explore a commission to create a ward system back in 2022 which was also voted down.

Schmidt-Rempel explained that the motion would not implement the ward system, but rather open the discussion to the public.

“This (motion) sends it to the Governance Standing Policy Committee to have a discussion to do the work, gather concerns, gather feedback from residents and then the Governance SPC gives the residents an opportunity to maybe voice these concerns.”

Councillor Rajko Dodic voted against the motion for several reasons, with cost being the most prominent one.

He said during previous ward system discussions, council received a report from the City Clerk’s office indicating the initial cost to implement the new system would be just under $300,000, plus an annual cost of $100,000 to maintain the system.

Dodic said council already had the information and bringing it to an SPC meeting would be a waste of time.

“Sending this to an SPC is simply going to result in a self-fulfilled prophecy, the same players are going to be involved, recommendation for a wad system will be voted on and it’s back to council to see if there’s an appetite to spend a ton of money to resolve a problem that doesn’t exist.”

Another point of concern from many council members, including Ryan Parker, was it could cause unequal representation between different wards.

“If I represented just certain areas of the west side, what do I care about the north side? What do I care about Uplands? What do I care about Hardieville? But right now I do care because I’m accountable to the whole community.”

Councillor Ryan Wolfe added that Lethbridge already has contention between the south and west sides, and that having a “big city” mentality could hurt the city.

“If we want to have this vision that Lethbridge is this big city, I think that’s going to be a negative to how we as council work to try to find efficiencies and cost savings without passing on these big tax hikes, which the people of Lethbridge have universally spoken loud and clear that is their number one concern.”

Mayor Blaine Hyggen also voted against the motion due to the amount it would ultimately end up costing the residents of Lethbridge.

While Councillor Al Beeber agreed with many of the talking points of his fellow councillors, he ended up voting in favour of the motion so residents could have their say in the matter.

“I may not vote for it (if brought to council), and right now I probably wouldn’t upon hearing all the discussions I have from Councillor Dodic, but I am in favour of having people have their say at the SPC office that’s part of good governance.”

Crowson added she has received feedback from people saying they want to be included in the conversations city council has.

“What I’m mostly hearing from the people is ‘talk to us, have a conversation with us, actually look into this and include us’…and that can be done at an SPC.”

Ultimately, the public won’t get their say in the matter as it was voted down 6-3.