Funding towards water and wastewater infrastructure, medical training and facilities in Lethbridge are some of the items city’s mayor is pleased to see in the proposed 2025 provincial budget.
Mayor Blaine Hyggen was in Edmonton when the budget was presented Thursday afternoon and says it was encouraging to see the province address the future expansion for the water and wastewater in small and medium-sized cities. Hyggen explains over three years the province has committed $520 million over three years three-years to build or improve drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.
“Although it didn’t specifically say Lethbridge, it’s small and mid-sized cities,” Hyggen says. “So, we want to see how that $520 million will be allocated. We’re hoping that we will see what we need to be able to expand our infrastructure in water and wastewater.”
Hyggen adds the province’s commitment to health care in Southern Alberta is also very promising to see, with the recommitment to plans to enhance the ICU capacity in both Lethbridge and Medicine Hat with a proposed $5 million commitment, along with funding for introducing a catheterization lab at the Chinook Regional Hospital. According to Hyggen the $39 million in funding over three years to the Southern Alberta Medical Program at the University of Lethbridge is a big win for the community.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from our community and through our advocacy work through council to the province, the importance of health care, the need for doctors, the need for specialty doctors as well.”
“It will address some of the concerns that we’ve been seeing, especially with the training facility at the university and we know that if students train within a community, the chances of them remaining there are much greater.”
Hyggen adds there has been a lot of work done in the community to improve cardiac care and the concerns people have in the community, with heart disease being the number one killer, so having the provincial investment is something that is welcomed as in recent he thinks the focus on health care has been “a little quieter.”
The Lethbridge mayor says it will take some time to look over the entire scope of the budget with the city’s CFO to see the full picture and how it will impact the city.
