Coun. Kris Samraj, council representative on the City Centre Development Agency (CCDA), during Monday's council meeting. (CHAT News photo)

By Alex McCuaig

CCDA public hearing

Council votes to table CCDA public hearing for two weeks

Jan 4, 2021 | 9:42 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – City council has delayed a public hearing on the budget of a downtown business development agency after a two-week notice went out just before Christmas and while many of the affected stakeholders had their shops closed due to public health restrictions.

The notice of the public hearing on the City Centre Development Agency (CCDA) set for Monday’s council meeting was sent by letter to stakeholders on Dec. 22 and publicly posted on Boxing Day.

However, some downtown business owners who pay a tax which helps fund the agency which is tasked with advocating for development of the city’s core complained the timing of the notice was problematic due to the holidays.

Council agreed, voting to table the public hearing to the next council meeting on Jan. 18.

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This year’s CCDA budget is proposed to see a dramatic reduction in the city’s contribution including not approving a continuation of the $100,000 annual grant to the organization.

Coun. Kris Samraj, the city’s representative on the CCDA board, says the organization needs to evolve.

“I think the CCDA has been controversial from the day it started back in 1984,” said Samraj. “I think I realized through this process is that there are some structural things that we need to change and I think this budget helps us do that.”

Samraj says there is a disconnect between the CCDA board made up of city residents who are not necessarily downtown financial stakeholders and the business owners who pay the tax to fund the agency which totalled $121,000 in 2020.

“That is a kind of problem with the legitimacy that I think the CCDA has struggled with but I think there are some things that we can do to change that,” said Samraj. “Now that the city’s money is kind of out of there, I think it might create more space for the CCDA to have some more independence.”

The city is planning to take the $100,000 earmarked for the CCDA and use it to promote council’s wish to see areas along Medicine Hat’s riverfront developed.

Invest Medicine Hat will be tasked with that objective and receive the grant money instead.

The proposed CCDA budget will also see a reduction in the total tax paid by downtown stakeholders while the city will provide nearly $45,000 more funding through its street beautification contract in 2021 with the agency than last year.

A public hearing is required for the CCDA budget as it is a business improvement area regulated under the provincial Municipal Government Act.