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County gives city $200,000 for operation grant

Feb 21, 2018 | 12:50 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Cypress County council made a gesture for collaboration with the City of Medicine Hat Tuesday night.

The county presented the City of Medicine Hat with $200,000 during Tuesday night’s city council meeting. It’s the second such donation the county has given to the city.

“It goes towards some of their recreational operations,” said Councillor Robin Kurpjuweit, who represents the riding of Longfellow. “The county recognizes that we have a strategic long-term partnership with the City of Medicine Hat, and this is just one way that we could help out moving forward.”

The funding will be used to help the city operate facilities such as the Family Leisure Centre and the Medicine Hat Public Library, which are used by members of the county.

“I think they recognize that it’s their citizens that are using this as well,” said Mayor Ted Clugston following the meeting.

The city and the county are working to establish Inter-municipal Collaboration Frameworks, as mandated by the province.

Both Clugston and Kurpjuweit say collaboration is key for both the city and the county.

“It’s [not just] recreation, it’s water, it’s shared services, of course fire is topical right now, and a waste management strategy,” Clugston said. “It’s not just that, it’s the whole region trying to work together.”

“Collaboration is something we talked about a lot during the election, both in the city and in the county,” said Kurpjuweit. “It’s something that we can recognize that the partnership moving forward, it needs to be strong, and we wanted to take that leadership role on that and lead the way.

“Hopefully this inspires some of the communities as well to recognize as well that we are all in this together, and regionally we’ll be more successful if we work together as a region.”