A day early Jay signs a 5 year $6.6 million dollar deal (33 million) - with the Calgary Flames. As a Medicine Hat Tigers Fan …and a Flames fan, it really cant get better than this can it?

33 million dollars …he could buy the Tigers now.

Our City Council is fuming over Alberta Health Services decision to do some streamlining by way of directing Medicine Hat’s Ambulance dispatch thru Calgary. A move that will break-up this region’s current Emergency Dispatch service. Our 9-1-1 dispatch center has won numerous awards and is the most accredited in the world. It’s flaw? It’s not in Calgary or Edmonton. Therefore expendable.

Our forgotten corner of the province seems to be taking the lion’s share of every cost cutting measure by this provincial government. Promise of money for hospital expansion dissolved, Events Centre funding not possible in this harsh economy and don’t even bother requesting for cash for new schools. Is this the straw that broke the camel’s back? Have we had enough?

http://www.gopetition.com/online/28249.html

McCarthyism stands a dark chapter in Western democracy when the scare of being a “Red Commie” was so strong that many people with completely valid political viewpoints were hauled before a government tribunal and questioned about their “beliefs”

Our Provincial government last night bumbled their way into a similar situation by passing the 2nd reading of Bill 44.

“Human Rights” tribunals are the new McCarthy trials in Canada. Citizens can be summoned before a quasi judicial inquiry board and made to answer questions about their political opinions and beliefs. In the past couple of years we have seen magazines like MacLeans answer to the human rights commission of Ontario & BC for daring to print an opinion piece demonstrating that Islam has components that are organized and have global ambition. Whether you agree or not, given the state of world geo political events it is a reasonable venue of discussion and examination.

Our human rights “courts” offer no due process of law, and no protection of the rights of the accused. They are an over reaching abuse of free people and their democratic rights. Since when were “free speech” questions the purvue of the human rights commission?

So we have a quasi judicial board of unelected individuals with unchecked power dragging innocent (by any legal sense) people before government officials who will then decide if their opinions and statements are “OK” –in a society that values free speech that is a total outrage! Do people forget what free speech is for? So how does this related to bill 44?

The Province of Alberta, in all its wisdom – has decided that human rights commissions would be the appropriate venue for a sensitive parent to drag teachers, who are following our provincial curriculum. Make them answer to any frivolous charge before an inquisition - to answer for offending someone. Teachers should face an inquisition if a parent feels their sensitivities were breached? How crazy is that? Read the rest of this entry »

They did get there. I didn’t realize City Hall met on Tuesdays after a holiday so the vote I was watching for caught me off guard.

As blogged earlier last month the City of Medicine Hat had prematurely given its support to the proposed changes to the Trans Canada Hiway in Medicine Hat and had done so without any public or private consultation with stakeholders. After a backlash from the business community, concerned citizens and to some extent this little blog… City Hall reversed its position - a very RARE move.

Credit to Alderman Thompson for being responsive to his electorate and showing the leadership necessary to set this right.

“That City Council rescind its support of the Trans Canada
Highway Improvements until the proper public consultation
is conducted

There is a measurable movement afoot to have the business conducted by the city of Medicine Hat moved out into the sunlight where it belongs. Old habits die hardest - but it is refreshing to see council open to self evaluation and correction - that is true leadership and deserves to be recognized.

I will edit this to reflect the vote once I can confirm that information.

Not very long …but as spring has finally come to Medicine Hat I cant help but feel a little Tiger nostalgia these days. Darren Helm and the Red Wings vs Cam Barker and the Blackhawks…coach Willy being handed the coaching assignment for team Canada at the World Juniors …

These are the glory days of the Tigers hockey program me thinks.

MoneySense released a report today on the best places to live in Canada based on a number of factors including air quality, weather, housing, etc.

Honestly, I thought we would rank higher.  This is a great place to live, even as much complaining as we do around here. But looking at the stats a little closer, a few things brought us down.  One, we are lazy.  We dont walk or bike to work.  Two, we do not use our transit system.  And Three, Doctors per 1000 is very low.

Another thing that surprised me is that our air quality is measured as good.  We have one of the highest rates of Asthma in Canada, and I related that to pollution from some of our industries.

Link to the study

Thanks Kim

As medhatblog discussed back in 2007 – The city and the province are planning to essentially redraw the land value and property value of the entire light industrial section of the city by making drastic changes to the access of the ligh industrial district from the Trans Canada highway …and had every intention of doing so without any real input from the people of Medicine Hat who stand to lose the most.

While there have been 2 open houses on the topic previously – they were to explain the proposed changes, NOT hear the concerns of the people affected. None of the previous open houses had representatives from government (city or province) or people from Stantec the engineering firm hired to plan the changes to take input from the people affected. There were pamphlets to take, but no opportunity for input. After meeting with ONLY the mayor and Alderman Hamil (and no stake holders from the business community) Alberta Transportation, Stantec and our mayor all decided this would be the best solution.

Due to congestion on the highway being a mix of highway traffic (trucks, travelers etc) and business traffic – the intersections along the Trans Canada and 16th Street and 6th St can become congested. The long term plan was to build a ring road so that highway traffic like trucks didn’t have to come through the city – that idea was dismissed, even though the ring road is still in the long range plans for development.

Apparently that would make the biggest road in Medicine Hat the city’s responsibility to maintain and manage (its our road, it serves our businesses and home - isn’t that appropriate?) while also substantially reducing the amount of highway traffic on the road. For those not familiar with this discussion - make sure you understand that part. Everybody agrees that some changes need to be made address the congestion on the Highway at 16th - but the long range solution was to route highway traffic (all the trucks) around the main road on a ring road. That would relieve congestion and is a completely viable solution that for some reason is dismissed without discussion.

Mayor Boucher was quoted in the March 9, 2009 edition of the Medicine Hat News as saying.

“If we did not support the plan they (province) would have gone ahead with a ring road, which was the long-term plan,”

So without allowing the people who are actually affected by this decision to speak on the issue at all – the city back in March unilaterally threw their support behind the proposed changes to the highway. I guess this stops the Province from building a ring road that would ALSO work to relieve congestion on the highway - while NOT costing stakeholders millions of dollars in lost property and business value and revenue.

Mayor Boucher - “If we had supported the idea of a ring road we would have had to pay for the overpass on Dunmore which would have meant tax increases. It could have cost $45 million for the overpass,” said Boucher.

Mr Boucher apparently assumes that all improvements to that road will still be needed after they route all the trucks and highway traffic to the ring road, something for which there is no study available to support.

Instead it will cost a small number of individual property and business owners those millions of dollars instead– and the only thing this will accomplish – to delay the Province building the ring road. They will still eventually build it – but apparently the mayor and council are willing to break up the property values of that entire section of the city to temporarily postpone the construction of the ring road.

What if letting the Province build the ring road is the right thing to do? Why was it dismissed without any debate or consultation from stake holders?

My question to you Mr Mayor is this. Why should the law abiding and tax paying property and business owners in the light industrial area give up MILLIONS of dollars in property and business value from their own pocket, in support of these changes only so that the city of Medicine Hat can avoid its responsibilities to maintain the busiest road in our city? Are you not the council of the light industrial area as well?

It is literally passing the buck on the backs of honest Medicine Hat tax payers – and council went ahead and did this without ANY consultation from the people who are going to have to pay this tab – and that is a travesty of government. It seems to me that before the actions of government cost that many citizens that much money – they have a responsibility to listen to the concerns of the stakeholders and actually consider the consequences to them BEFORE they make a decision. The actual people affected have been treated like an after thought in this entire process.

6 weeks after putting his and councils stamp of approval behind the changes – Mr Boucher finally heard from the people affected at the April 23rd open house. They aren’t happy about it. They are angry, frustrated and feel like the people elected to represent them have failed.

I don’t blame them one bit. This is an absolutely catastrophic failure of elected officials doing their duty to protect the interests of their citizens. Shame on you council – these citizens deserve better from you. Do the right thing. Stop this process and do it right, with input from the people affected

Let Your Voice Be Heard! Vital Signs Report.

Hopefully this isn’t too late …anyone know what was said? - DM

Medicine Hat, Alberta (April 17, 2009) – ‘Hatters will have one more chance to add their input to the 2009 Vital Signs Report on Tuesday. The Community Foundation of Medicine Hat and Southeastern Alberta will host the final in a series of community consultations on April 21 from 12:00 to 12:55 PM at REDI Enterprises.

The purpose of the consultation is to get citizens together to express their views on the strengths and weaknesses of our community.

“The Vital Signs report includes statistics and important facts regarding all facets of life in Medicine Hat,” said Community Foundation Executive Director Mike Christie. “The community consultation process assists us in gathering the information citizens want to see in the report.”

Christie urges citizens of all ages to come to the consultation to express their views.

“Vital Signs has become a platform for local action amongst community leaders and volunteers,” Christie said. “Citizens’ input, especially at the early stages of the process, is integral to the final Vital Signs report. The contributions that residents make at these meetings can help us grow a better community.”

The event will be held at REDI Enterprises and includes free beverages, including Tim Horton’s® coffee. Attendees are welcome to bring their own lunch. REDI Enterprises is located at 860 Allowance Ave. SE.

City Hall had a bit of everything at their open house. Complexity,ambiguity and some frank discussion mixed as City Hall genuinely reached out to voters for feedback and questions on the future of the Gas Production Company in Medicine Hat. I take a moment to acknowledge that on this important issue the city has been open to hearing from its citizens……..and done.

I would summarize the two main viewpoints presented as follows.

Part time politicians make poor energy company directors. E&Y recommends running the gas production company as a company and hiring qualified people to make decisions. (as we blogged back in January) It is clear, that in the highly competitive energy business Medicine Hat’s current model is floundering. Alderman in moments of candor will admit that they are pretty unqualified to attempt to run a billion dollar energy business – and I for one agree that the structure of how the production company is managed likely makes competing with companies like Encana for production pretty risky if not suicidal in the long run.

Citizens of Medicine Hat did take the time to review the recommendations and asked some tough but fair questions regarding the political accountability of such a board – and even chasing the Mayor into saying he wasn’t so sure about the new structure model either.

Personally I think if you drilled down to the root concern for the people in attendance it would be this –
1) will making a private gas production company make our utility bills go higher
2) Is the city planning on selling off the gas company
3) What is the future of our resource

Frankly those are some fair and legitimate questions.

People in Alberta are well aware of how badly privatization and deregulation of the energy business failed the citizens in other communities. People may recall that back in 1993 Albertans owned 50% of what is now Encana and sold off the asset for a paltry $19 / share. Other than the staggering loss of equity Albertans also lost major management over their own resource – as it is now exploited by many interests that have no connection back to the people of this Province.

In addition – the policy of adding private for profit companies in energy deregulation badly hurt small business and home owners in communities all over Alberta. The University of Alberta’s Parkland Institute reported in 2001:

The first lesson taken from this research is that Albertans have not experienced lower prices, or a more stable supply of electricity under a deregulated electricity regime. In contrast, Albertans are paying a premium price for their deregulated electricity. Between June and October of 2000, the price of electricity rose from 5 cents to 25 cents per kWh (kilo watt hour). Without the $2.3 billion rebate program for households and businesses, Albertans would have seen their residential electric bills go up by 500% in this same period

To counter vocal criticism of rising electricity prices, the Alberta government claimed that rising electricity prices simply reflected the higher price of natural gas and the correspondingly higher cost of producing electricity. To evaluate these claims we calculated the cost of producing power in Alberta, compared it to the selling price, and found that higher production costs cannot explain skyrocketing electricity prices. Taking into account increases in natural gas prices, the average cost of generating electricity should not have gone over 6.38 cents per kWh in December 2000, yet the average pool price was 18.99 cents - almost three times the estimated cost. Contrary to the government’s optimistic claims about ‘competition’ and market efficiency, deregulation has introduced a complex system of buying and selling that can allow collusion between sellers, and enables producers to sell electricity at prices well above the cost of production.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not and April Fools Joke - Sadly this is true

During the last federal election our region’s conservatives were robbed of any real chance to vet, hold accountable and nominate a candidate from a competitive field. http://www.medhatblog.com/?p=478#comments

The criticism I had with the process last time is after watching thousands of memberships expire in our riding - and having a surprise vacancy for the seat when Monte suddenly left his post - The Conservatives disallowed people renewing their membership from voting. Giving our riding’s nominee Lavar Payne the mandate of only 200+ people heading into the election.

If as a Conservative in our region you happened to think that process was a tad unfair (like I do) you will love the new anti democratic model! Released last week the Conservative Party now says that the only way to force a nomination in a riding is by having the support of 2/3’rds of the membership ask for an open nomination. Read that again – 2/3rds of the TOTAL MEMBERSHIP, not 2/3rd of those who cast a vote.

How can a democratic party actively shut down the grassroots process of nominations? There is nothing democratic about counting the people who don’t vote as being in support of the incumbent.

“This is setting a very bad precedent,” said Lori Williams, a political scientist with Calgary’s Mount Royal College. “It looks. … undemocratic if not anti-democratic, intended to shut down grassroots participation, rather than to encourage it.”

Suppose we had 5000 members in Medicine Hat – and ballots were sent out to members to poll and see if the desired an open nomination process. The votes come back like this
2000 vote in favour of having a nomination process.

7 vote for not having the process.

Under the Conservative Party of Canada riding association policy – those 7 votes carry the day …because all the people who didn’t vote get added to their total – and they only need to have 1/3rd support.

In our last Provincial election 60% of Albertans didn’t vote – would it be democratic to hand those 60% of votes to the incumbent? Why go through the charade of putting a process in place – if that process is by design unwinnable? - Medicine Hat has an MP elected by his riding with a little over 200 votes. It took 200+ people to make him the party nominee in the last election with a very limited field– but it would take thousands of voters and a 2/3rds majority to unseat him?

A closed process, 200+ votes and he is now cemented in place for life.

I have nothing against Mr Payne per se – but the process around his selection and now acclamation for life stinks.

Small CBC Story