Community engagement, working to revitalize downtown and making progress on hiring doctors are among the top victories that come to mind for Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen from the past year.
Nearly 150 events were hosted downtown at Festival Square since it opened and Hyggen said the new gathering place has been successful in bringing people together.
When it comes to challenges that evolved from last year, the mayor points to the way the city deals with encampments. In the past year, council approved money to implement a new strategy with a stronger focus on finding resources for people living rough, while preventing encampments from becoming entrenched.
BACKGROUND: Nearly 100 encampments disbursed so far this year as city implements new strategy
The single thing Hyggen said he is most proud of in 2023 is engagement from the community. The city hosted a series of community conversations where staff from many departments were available to answer questions and gather feedback from residents.
“I was impressed on how many folks got out and actually participated in this and shared their opinions because this is how we become a better community – by getting suggestions from our community,” Hyggen said.
BACKGROUND: Residents invited to connect with city officials for community conversation
According to Hyggen, 26 new doctors started working in the city in the past year. He said he is getting fewer calls from people concerned about not having a doctor, but he recognized there is still a need for more.
“We can always do better. This is a provincial initiative however these folks live within our community that are without doctors so we do stay in touch with our provincial partners as we work through this,” he said.
Though doctor recruiting is traditionally a provincial responsibility, city council put $15,000 towards an advertising campaign to recruit doctors in 2022. Hyggen said while the city works with the province closely, sometimes council sees a need to take action when other levels of government do not.
“If you are not getting that support at that particular time from the province, then of course council does step up to the plate to try to help. Recognizing that this does fall on taxes of the community, we are careful when we do that – we need to make sure we are not getting that support from any other level and then we move forward,” he said.
This is not unique to physician recruitment – Hyggen also pointed to federal jurisdiction and the city taking initiatives to increase housing supply when other levels of government are slow to act.
“We hear about it most from the community because we are the leadership within the city that they reside so it’s a struggle at times for sure, but we do our best with the dollars that we have and will continue to advocate for additional resources from provincial and federal,” he said.
Council heard an update on the city’s financial situation late in the year which highlighted many challenges. Hyggen said council spending money on initiatives traditionally out of its jurisdiction can make the budget tight, which can take away dollars for city projects.
BACKGROUND: Financial update sheds light on challenging economic pressure in city
“There are a lot of people coming to the trough if you will and that tough is empty – without raising taxation, we are not going to be able to give everybody’s asks that come forward to council,” he said.
Looking towards the new year, the mayor said the biggest need from the province is money for water infrastructure upgrades.
BACKGROUND: City looks for ways to increase water capacity without rate increase
“We can’t expand within our community until we do have that additional infrastructure. We are at max here, we are close to 100 per cent on both water and wastewater,” he said. “Right now if we have industry that wants to come to town and spend their dollars and build a facility, we are not prepared for that right now and so that’s very tough.”
He said the city hopes to get money in the next provincial budget. If there is no money, there could be effects beyond stagnated growth. Hyggen pointed to Osoyoos in British Columbia, which is facing a significant tax and utility increase to pay for infrastructure needs – something the mayor said he would not be able to support here.
BACKGROUND: ‘I thought I was missing a page:’ Lethbridge mayor responds to provincial budget
“This is devastating and that’s why it is so important that we do get these provincial dollars for this water/wastewater that we have within our community,” Hyggen said. “We need to understand that taxes come from growth and you don’t have growth without having that infrastructure and so the province will benefit from this as well, as will the federal government.”