Premier Smith, in year-end interview, mulls changes to balance of power between city councils and staff

Edited by Bob Schneider, cameras by Bob Schneider, Ross Lavigne.

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Medicine Hat’s city hall has been divided over the actions of a mayor who has accused the administration of acting without council’s permission. Mayor Linnsie Clark says council should always have final say while critics say staff are hired to operate with independence to implement council’s vision.

While Smith has avoided taking a direct side in the debate, she has floated carrying out a review of the municipal code of conduct that Mayor Linnsie Clark was found to have broken and met with a resident advocate who raised concerns about the city’s transparency and accountability.

Smith, who has never been elected to a municipal council, alluded to the issue she sees with municipalities but didn’t commit in the interview with CHAT News to any steps her government would take to find a remedy.

“Who’s really in charge when decisions are being made? Is it administration led with a rubber stamp from the council or is it council led with the administration taking their marching orders from them?” the premier asked.

“I think perhaps it may be a little out of balance.”

When asked if she’d support the implementation of the so-called strong mayor powers introduced by the Ontario government in 2022, Smith pivoted and pointed instead to the system used to choose her Northwest Territories counterpart.

There, the premier of N.W.T. is elected among members of the legislature. Smith said perhaps city councils could chose their mayor from among its councillors instead of residents electing one directly.

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Smith’s visits to Medicine Hat in 2024:

– Hecklers, walk-outs mark Smith’s library town hall

– Premier says Medicine Hat has potential to be a technology hub

– Smith cancels Medicine Hat Stampede appearances

– Premier Smith says rooftop panels are the ‘best opportunity’

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Smith also referenced the idea of having political parties at the municipal level — something her government is allowing in Calgary and Edmonton in the 2025 municipal elections as a sort of trial run.

“There’s some things that we can learn from provincial government,” she said.

While Smith hasn’t made changes to the code of conduct, she has decided to ban the electronic tabulators that have become mainstay in cities and towns across the province — a deeply unpopular move that triggered significant backlash.

A resolution asking the United Conservatives to reverse the ban received 85 per cent support at an Alberta Municipalities convention in September.

While no formal estimate has been given, switching from machines to hand-counting ballots could cost the City of Medicine Hat hundreds of thousands of dollars during a time when city hall is under pressure to keep costs low.

When asked for her response, Smith said the voting machines “haven’t lived up to the hype” and that hand counts were needed to keep Albertans’ faith in elections.

“To maintain electoral confidence and make sure that people feel good about the results and that they know them in an effective, fast manner, we think that the tabulators need to go,” she said.

Team Alberta or Team Canada?

Canada’s premiers have taken varied approaches to a threat of 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian imports into the United States as promised by the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

She wants to see Ottawa and Edmonton on the same page.

“I would like Team Canada to be on Team Alberta,” she told CHAT News.

“That would demonstrate that we’re really listening to what the Americans want.”

Trudeau, accompanied by his now Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, visited Trump in late November. About a month later, LeBlanc and another minister visited with two of Trump’s cabinet picks.

Observers say that points to the level of seriousness that Ottawa is taking the tariff threats — that at least one economic expert warns could cause a recession — seriously. Smith agrees.

“He’s serious about the border and he’s concerned about it. And we should be, too,” she said.

“We have a very serious fentanyl crisis. We also know that the way that guns get into the hands of criminals is often being smuggled across the border. And we also have a human trafficking problem as well,” she continued.

“Those are our issues and they’re just as much American issues, and so we should be working collaboratively on it for our joint success. We want to keep our community safe.”

For all Albertans

Smith in early November received a dominating 91.5 per cent vote of support from her United Conservative Party members in a leadership review. That’s up from the 54 per cent Smith got when she won the party leadership in 2022.

She’s also received strong criticism in her riding over the Alberta government’s changes to gender rules at schools, municipal governance and environmental policies.

Asked how she balances the wants of her party with the needs of all Albertans, Smith said she uses the UCP membership as a “focus group” — with some 4,000 members voting and participating in the party policy process.

“We’re getting some policy advice from very committed, passionate Albertans who are conservative and leaning,” she said.

“But, it is ultimately our job to make sure that we’re putting policies in place that make sense for the majority of Albertans.”

Smith sees her government’s health care restructuring as its biggest accomplishment of 2024. While it was a process that was revealed and got underway in late 2023, a lot of the work took place this year.

“Now we’re on the cusp of some really dramatic reforms,” she said.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange says the revamp that splits the system into four separate agencies will improve patient care. Former Alberta Medical Association president and Medicine Hat physician Dr. Paul Parks says it creates unnecessary silos.

Either way, the changes are barrelling ahead.

“That major restructuring work was really important to set the stage for what’s going to be dramatic improvement in service for Albertans over the course of the next three years,” Smith said.

In 2025

Premier Smith sees education as the biggest challenge in 2025.

“We have to start on the major construction build for our schools,” she said.

“We know that we were building about 18 a year, and we had to extend that, accelerate that, so that we can build about 30 a year.”

A Redcliff school’s modernization project was among those that received immediate approval for construction from the Alberta government’s new education accelerator fund, moving up the next phase of the initiative.

The next provincial election is scheduled for 2027.

Smith has not yet confirmed if she will run again.

by Eli J. Ridder

Premier Smith, in year-end interview, mulls changes to balance of power between city councils and staff

Team Alberta or Team Canada?

For all Albertans

In 2025

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