Business owner Les Schwab speaks before council about proposed CCDA budget(Tiffany Goodwein/CHATNewsToday)

By Tiffany Goodwein

CCDA budget tabled following lengthy debate over organization’s future

Jan 19, 2021 | 12:01 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Budget deliberations over the proposed CCDA budget quickly turned into a fiery debate into what the future will hold for the CCDA.

The CCDA is an organization consisting of downtown stakeholders who pay a tax levy for funding.

CHAT News has learned that a petition has launched garnering 41 signatures thus far from stakeholders calling for the CCDA to disband. Under the current bylaw 50 signatures or 25 per cent of stakeholders is required in order for a referendum to take place to dissolve the organization.

The stakeholders who want out, are citing a plethora of dysfunction that has plagued the organization for years.

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The 2021 budget which called for the removal of the $100,000 city grant and amendments to the Monarch theatre budget is the most recent point of contention.

“How many BIA’s , there’s 30, 40 in the province? They all seem to be clipping along, and we’ve been dysfunctional for how many years? Where is the disconnect? And that’s got to be fixed,” said 30-year CCDA stakeholder and former board member Les Schwab.

Councillor Jaime Macintosh publicly expressed his support for disbanding the organization at Monday’s meeting.

“I truly believe that with the situation, the ongoing issues that have taken place I think the best way to restart this is to disband it and then the grassroots business owners from downtown can reinvigorate it from a fresh perspective,” he said.

CCDA chair Jeremy Silver acknowledged the stakeholder’s frustration and called for the councilor’s position on the board to be removed, stating that it is a conflict of interest.

“One of our mandates was also to advocate for our downtown stakeholders, the downtown business owners however that constantly conflicted with our ties to city council, and that still today is our stakeholder’s biggest complaint, is that they don’t feel we are effective. I don’t understand how the city can advocate for the downtown stakeholders, without biting the hands that feed them, and that’s how everyone has felt previous to now. The answer is it can’t,” Silver said.

Council voted 6-3 to table the budget for the next council meeting. As for what to expect, Mayor Ted Clugston said it’s hard to tell.

“Two weeks isn’t a long time to make some major changes, but we will maybe have a discussion with the chair Jeremy there, and you may see no changes, you may see a softening of the cutback. You could even sense council was a little torn apart. I mean what is going on in downtown is fantastic. I don’t want to lose sight of that. It’s the best it’s been in 40, 50 years in my memory, so I don’t want to lose any of that momentum so I am really struggling with this one,” he said.

The next council meeting is slated for Feb.1 .