File Photo/CHAT News

By Olivia Thorington

CITY HALL

Medicine Hat city council: Transportation Master Plan, changing start times

Jul 7, 2025 | 3:18 PM

Medicine Hat city council has a stacked agenda for its meeting tonight that could potentially go into overtime.

A proposed and highly-criticized Transportation Master Plan will come forward in a public hearing Monday evening.

Critics are concerned the plan would enable city planners to narrow roads and remove scarce parking spots in favour of expanding sidewalks for bicycles, scooters and pedestrians.

Staff insist the transportation blueprint for the next decade is broad enough that it doesn’t cement changes on a per-street basis — despite included elements that propose just that.

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Also on the agenda are a pair of notices of motion that could change when and how city council operates.

Tonight’s council meeting gets underway at 6:30 p.m. and can be attended in-person at city hall or watched online via the city’s YouTube channel.

Transportation plan

An update to the City of Medicine Hat’s transportation blueprint years in the making has been received with an outpouring of criticism from the public.

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READ: Here’s what to know about the Transportation Master Plan

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Tonight, residents will have a chance to have their say through a public hearing. Many already have through letters submitted in advance — four in favour and a substantive 86 against.

Staff say the 85-page plan is focused on increasing safety, future transportation technologies and improving active transportation infrastructure. Active transportation refers to walking, cycling and any other human-powered form of getting around.

Critics point to sidewalk “bumps” that jut out into the street, among various other changes that could remove parking or cut into roads in favour of expanding other forms of non-vehicle transportation.

City engineers — along with outside experts — developed the plan over the course of two years with a process that included some public consultation.

However, some residents said they wanted to have more of a say after the plan was presented during an April 28 council committee of the whole meeting.

Council at its May 20 meeting decided to defer making a final decision on the plan, citing the need to hear residents out through a public hearing — which is what is taking place tonight.

Bob Bourke, a real estate agent with Remax, said Monday he plans to tell council during the public hearing that it doesn’t make sense to approve the Transportation Master Plan.

“Why are we bending over backwards to spend all this money to make the roads so difficult and make it difficult for 96 per cent of people to get around in a car or truck?” he said in an interview with CHAT News.

“I think it’s based on something out of Europe or France.”

Sabrina Moore, owner of Kollektiv, also plans to speak at council. She recently protested changes by the city’s planning department to remove parking spaces in front of her downtown business.

“I oppose a city that burns taxpayer dollars on projects the community does not want,” Moore wrote in an excerpt of her planned address to council shared with CHAT News.

“This plan, which includes narrowing already busy and congested streets, will directly impact traffic flow, along with both commercial and residential access,” she added.

“It might look good in theory, but it doesn’t reflect the realities of living in Medicine Hat.”

Riverside development

A plot of land at the centre of controversy last year is making a return to council tonight.

The Harlow neighbourhood led by the Hale family protested the development of a pair of four-story condominiums at 1064 First Street S.W. throughout 2024.

After the City of Medicine Hat’s technical coordinating committee approved the development, the neighbourhood made a deal that saw the developer to go elsewhere with the project.

Coun. Robert Dumanowski, in a motion previewed at a previous council meeting, is proposing a limitation to the plot of land that would prevent a similar situation from taking place.

His motion would limit any future development to single family or residential use only, with structures allowed to only be two stories or 10.5 metres tall.

Council start time

Coun. Shila Sharps is previewing a pair of motions tonight.

The first proposes that council begin its meetings at 4 p.m. as opposed to 6:30 p.m. and move closed sessions to after the public portion.

The proposal would be presented at council’s Aug. 18 meeting.

Sharps is also proposing adding the composition of the agenda review committee to the city’s procedural bylaw.

That would formalize what has largely been an informal meeting of those who set the agenda for council, made up of the chief administrator, mayor or acting mayor and deputy mayor.

Sharps told CHAT News on Monday the proposal aims to provide accountability for what’s happening in meetings and setting up the next council for success.