It is official, the next Lethbridge City Council will be made up of new and old faces.
The 2025 to 2029 Lethbridge City Council will include Mayor-Elect Blaine Hyggen, along with Council-Elects Belinda Crowson, Jenn Schmidt-Rempel, Rajko Dodic, Ryan Wolfe, Al Beeber, Rufa Doria, Mark Campbell and Ryan Parker.
In Lethbridge, 17,152 people cast a ballot, 19.35 per cent of eligible voters. This is a significant decline from the 30 and 35 per cent turnout seen over the past five general elections.
Returning Officer for the City of Lethbridge says because of the Provincial legislation changes with Bill 20, all ballots were hand-counted. She says an election of this magnitude takes planning and dedication to make sure that voters are confident that they have successfully cast their ballot. Part of the city’s plan was to have fewer voting stations compared to past elections.
“This approach was a cost-effective and efficient decision for the City taxpayers,” Hilford says. “We kept our costs as low as possible, while adhering to the Province’s new regulations, and stayed within our budget to conduct this election. But, even doing this, the cost of the 2025 Election increased by more than $300,000, and the total price tag was double compared to 2021.”
The $600,000 budget included eight voting days. Compared to communities of similar size, Red Deer had five advanced voting days and a budget of $1.5 million, while St. Albert also had five voting days and an estimated budget of around $670,000.
The city will be hosting a swearing-in ceremony for the new council on Monday at 1:30 p.m., which will be livestreamed on the City’s YouTube page.
Elsewhere in the region, Lethbridge County results are official with Eric Van Essen elected in Division 6 and Tony Ankermann elected in Division 7.
Voter turnout in the county was 16 per cent of eligible voters.
All councillors, including the two candidates who were voted in and the five candidates who were acclaimed, will be sworn in at the Organizational Meeting on Friday, October 31st.
According to officials, across the province, there was lower than average voter turnout reported.
