(Image Credit: Jett Schwaier/CHAT News)

By Jett Schwaier

CITY HALL

Medicine Hat City Councillor Young appointed acting mayor

Jan 19, 2026 | 11:23 PM

The Medicine Hat city council held a meeting of less than half an hour in length on Monday to appoint Councillor Stuart Young as acting mayor for the period of February 3, 2026, to March 19, 2026.

During the meeting, the council also discussed items on the consent agenda for clarification, but all remaining reports were approved unanimously.

The meeting’s only item of new business was the appointment of Young as acting mayor, filling in for the mayor and deputy mayor during a scheduled absence.

Following the vote, Young described the role of acting mayor as a routine part of the council’s annual rotation, saying, “it’s just a procedural thing.”

“It’s not as important or interesting as it sounds,” Young said.

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Young explained that the acting mayor position exists as a contingency, similar to a backup role, and rotates alphabetically among councillors throughout the year.

“We have the deputy mayor and the acting mayor, and [if] the mayor is incapacitated for any reason, then the deputy mayor and the acting mayor come in,” Young said.

“We all rotate, the deputy mayor steps in, and then if the deputy mayor can’t step in, the acting mayor steps in.”

Young said the job of acting mayor is fairly simple for him.

“Mayor Clark is still running the show, my job is just to step in if anything were to happen,” Young said

The council had pulled three items on the consent agenda for clarification, including:

• The Development and Infrastructure Committee Meeting Minutes
• The Capital and One-Time Operating Projects, Policies and Bylaws in Force per Standing Committee
• 2025 Outstanding Council Motions

After brief discussions, the council agreed there is a lot of information in the items to go over, as Interim City Manager Joseph Hutter said he can answer the council’s questions in advance after passing them on to the Managing Director of the appropriate committee.

Councillor Reynish thanked Interim City Manager Hutter for collecting all the information, saying, “it is quite comprehensive, it’s very jam-packed.” “So congratulations on putting the list together.”

During the discussion, Councillor Varga questioned why the Land Use Bylaw refresh under the Planning and Development item couldn’t be initiated sooner, as he said, “people out in the area are looking forward to this refresh coming out.”

Hutter said that to move forward, we need to be certain of all of the internal perspectives, as internal feedback on the draft document is still being reviewed.

Council adjourned shortly after returning from a closed session, marking one of the shortest meetings under Mayor Clark’s tenure, the mayor said.

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READ: Medicine Hat City Council have a light public agenda on Monday

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