Council to have tough budget decisions forthcoming
By Lethbridge Herald on March 12, 2026.
Herald Photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Even though provincial educational property taxes are increasing, Mayor Blaine Hyggen says heÕs hopeful there will be buckets of money to pull from the province, to help alleviate some of the burden of local tax payers to cover infrastructure costs.By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald
Mayor Blaine Hyggen said Wednesday he understands the frustration from residents about the increases to provincial educational property taxes in a time of affordability crisis.
“There are certain things that we can control, and as council we control the municipal portion of tax, but there are also things that we can’t control, and that’s what comes down from the province,” said Hyggen.
He explained that having to collect provincial educational property taxes is part of the municipal government act, and all cities and communities do that.
“That is part of the tax bill. What you’ll see it’ll be split up. You’ll have the municipal portion, the education portion, as well as the Green Acres requisition that they’re able to do in the community as well,” said Hyggen.
He said now council has some tough decisions to make with the upcoming budgets, both operating and capital budgets.
“We’ve heard we have over $250 million of requests out there for different projects, and definitely nowhere near those dollars that are available,” said Hyggen.
He said they may have around 10 per cent of the money available for projects, and therefore, it’s going to be a challenge coming up with it during this budget.
“We know there’s some frustration out there on how we’re going to try to keep taxes low, because we’ve heard time and time again taxes are going up,” said Hyggen.
He said those budgets will be focused on needs other than wants, and he mentioned one of the big needs the city has is expanding the city’s water and wastewater treatment facilities.
“I know our administration knows what we need to be able to move forward with some of these projects, and the start is definitely water and wastewater. This is the base for everything that we need to develop in our community,” said Hyggen.
As mentioned by Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Darrell Mathews during city council meeting Tuesday, municipalities are receiving roughly half the per person provincial funding they did 15 years ago to help support local services and infrastructure.
Matthews explained Tuesday that any increase in costs or reduction in provincial support must ultimately be offset by increased in local revenues such as property taxes, utility rates, per user fees or through adjustments to service levels.
But Hyggen said not all hope is lost when it comes to being able to get financial help from the province for those projects.
“You may not see Lethbridge announced at the budget, but there might be buckets of money that are announced for infrastructure and that we could pull from,” said Hyggen.
He said it is a matter of waiting until the provincial budget gets finalized at the end of the month
“This is a proposed budget, it’s not finalized yet and it’s my hope that maybe there’s more that comes up before this is finalized, and some decisions are made to be able to alleviate some of the burdens that we’ve seen as a community,” said Hyggen.
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I’ll be very interested to see what the city considers as needs vs wants. In the past the city has spent tens of millions of dollars on the needs of very small minority of citizens. Hopefully these nice to have projects are not repeated.
I have been warning people for the last 2 years that federal and provincial funding will see cuts, but no one believed me! I am only a small business owner, yet I understood what was coming! And it is going to get much worse! This Iranian war is only an appetizer to show what a world war will do to our economy and cost of living!
You have groups shutting down projects that would generate revenues to help pay for the demands for more healthcare funding, more education funding, more social services funding and often it is those same groups who are making the demands. Money doesn’t fall out of the sky and it doesn’t grow on trees!
What did people expect? You had the NDP collaborating with the unions and special groups the last 2 years, to rise up and call out the UCP to remove them from office, which in itself was close to an insurrection.
The UCP heard your demands, the union demands, and they acted! They put money into education and into healthcare to try to prevent strikes and take some of the stress off and improve class issues and healthcare wait times.
The unions made their demands, OR ELSE, and the UCP had to move or face large scale strikes!
People really need to come back to reality and see where the we are financially in this country! We are close to facing a debt wall federally after Trudeau doubled our national debt by adding over $500 billion in just a few years. We have to put billions into all of the First Nations demands, and even more billions into our military if we want to remain as Canada! The Liberals have continually bankupter our military for several decades, counting on the US to protect us! Most just don’t get it!
Wake up! Europe is preparing for a world war by 2028! But most of you just don’t understand how much the world has changed and what that means because most of you have been spoiled all your lives to a point you keep on demanding your freedom when you are free and you keep on demanding better services but don’t want to pay for them!
What were thinking when you saw the NDP use the unions in an effort to bring down the government! The UCP acted by increasing funding or face massive strikes, plain and simple and now we all have to pay for it!
quite incredible how the great problems of our society are ever the fault of the ndp, unions…commie liberal socialists; and, bravo! to the likes of the amazing ucp, and of course the incredible trump supporter types, for their stalwart opposition to living wages, safe work environments, and a healthy living environment.
and, let us not overlook why we have ongoing genoicide, and now a broader war in the middle east, that is ruining the environment and ecosystems as well as a very many lives: congrats to the great god trump for his ability to lie at least as well as hitler and goebels, for his support of the great war criminal and human rights abusers of our time, netanyahoo and the israeli war machine.
but, of course, according to your outlook, this and all things wrong are only possible because of the ndp, unions, and liberal socialists. all would be just swell if regular folk would just make do with a little less every passing day, and wait for the trickle down wealth that the current system keeps telling us comes from our oligarchical oligopoly driven system. of course, for those types, there is no such thing as enough, and that is really why we have wars.
maybe if you and ilk could be just a little more patient, there will very soon be no need for unions, as ai usurps more jobs, and ever more exponentially. then we will all benefit – right? – as there will be far fewer disruptions around living wages in the work place, as there will of course be far fewer workers and work places.
Lethbridge: $250 million in infrastructure needs.
Actual money available: about 10%.
City hall’s strategy: hope the province brings “buckets of cash.”
Somewhere between fiscal policy and a GoFundMe.
Neat!
This was inevitable! We have seen increased costs in healthcare, education, infrastructure while facing losses in revenue generating projects because the bleeding hearts in society . . . the same ones who are demanding all of the social services . . . better healhcare . . . and better education are the ones roadblocking projects to pay for those services!
Many of us have watched the global geo-political issues increase threatening our way of life and there is no sign of those issues lessening. We have to tighten our belts!
The issues on our local city streets costs millions of dollars annually, causing increased staffing for our police, fire/EMS and emergency department!
70% of crime in the area comes from those in encampments . . . who sleep rough . . . and loiter all night committing crimes . . . all while the shelter we just invested more tax dollarsin to double in size . . . just to have this group refuse to fill the vagancies because they cannot commit their crimes if they stay in the shelter!
Local tax dollars of over $14 million annually go to supports and paying for the rippling effects caused by these people who refuse to stop committing the crimes because they have been allowed to live on the streets and commit these crimes for years . . . we have ‘conditioned’ and promoted their behaviour which is one that allows gangs and organized crime to blossom!
There is a high cost to the taxpayer . . . and it is very much now a law enforcement issue . . . because we have provided the necessary sheltering/housing and supports for them BUT they are refusing to use them becausing they prefer to live the life of crime on the streets!
At some point there needs to be decisions made on what is considered a priority, essential to live in this city! Tough choices have to be made because tough times are coming . . . and economies tank . . . crime rises . . . and during those same times people decide the police budget will save them millions by reducing it . . . well how did that workout when Council defunded the police budget in the middle of the highest crimes in Canada several years ago? We are still feeling the impacts of that! Reducing police budgets during high crime periods it insanity, because crime costs ripple through so many other areas that the impacts/costs are far more!
We don’t NEED a third bridge . . . and we don’t NEED more arts funding . . . and we don’t NEED hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on 5th St So between 1st Ave and 6th Ave ‘beautifying’ the area just to have the street people destroy it or putting lipstick on the pig! . . . Repair the water lines that are failing and allow the street to remain 4 lanes for traffic to flow because every other street going north and south within blocks have been restricted due to bike lanes, the Festival Square, etc. . . . when you keep restricting traffic flow people refuse to come to the area . . . then you kill downtown!
There are ways to cut the budget!
Is there something happening in the local real estate market that no one wants to talk about. Case in point
Listing in a well developed south side neighborhood. Nice home, listed at
$539,000.00. ASSESSED VALUE. $634,000.00. Taxes 6407.00
ASSESSED VALUE UP OVER 45,000 IN TWO YEARS.
Has the City overshot its wad with assessments??
Mitigating factors include the usual for a necessary sell.
Anyone have any info on whether this is becoming a trend.