By Chris Brown

City council passes budget for 2023 and 2024

Dec 19, 2022 | 10:18 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Six weeks after they were first presented to Medicine Hat City Council, members unanimously passed the budgets for 2023 and 2024 on Monday evening.

The budgets first came to council on Nov. 7 and returned on the Nov. 21 and Dec. 5 agendas, as well as at a special committee of the whole meeting in mid-November. Deliberations have stalled out each time due to time constraints.

The budgets contain a four per cent property tax increase in each of the next two years and increases to a range of user fees.

Mayor Linnsie Clark says budgets change and opportunity remains for amendments and changes, and finding efficiencies to lower the cost to citizens will be top of mind for this council moving forward

“Council is very aware that both on the tax side and energy side there’s you know it puts pressure on people in addition to the pressures that are already being experienced,” she said following the meeting. “And as a council we do really need to focus both on ensuring that our organization is financially viable into the future And that’s a large reason why we’re doing Strong Towns Community Action Lab. But also looking at innovative ways to do things in a less expensive way.”

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Clark campaigned for the mayor’s chair last year on openness and transparency, and many presentations and deliberations took place in open forums.

Even though deliberations stretched over six weeks, Clark is pleased with how the process played out, saying it’s a difficult process to get a full grasp of the budget in a very short period of time.

“A lot of the managing directors have been working on the budget for years and for our council to dive in for a few months and get to know as much as they can was a really interesting experience,” she said.

“Overall, she said she believes both council and administration tried to address the crucial issues.

The final meeting of 2022 opened with Councillors Darren Hirsch and Cassi Hider paying tribute to two well-known community members who passed away in the past 10 days – former mayor Ted Grimm and firefighter Curtis Noble.

The first council meeting of the new year is scheduled for Jan. 16.