The statue model

By Aaron Mahoney

Council

Council rejects monetary support but backs provincial letter of support for bronze statue at Exhibition Park

Apr 29, 2019 | 5:16 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge City Council offered its support in the form of a letter of support in seeking provincial funding for a monument recognizing the contributions of veterans of Alberta while commemorating Lethbridge as an Artillery City while denying the accompanying funding request on Monday, April 29.

The resolution carried unanimously after Mayor Chris Spearman specified that the presentation from Lethbridge United Services Institute President Glenn Miller would be received as information, and not as a financial ask.

Initially, Miller was asking council for 1/3 the cost of the project, which came out to $67,000, to help establish the horse artillery monument.

The Lethbridge United Services Institute announced a capital campaign to establish the bronze monument back in February, and to date, they’ve raised $50,000 on their own.

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Miller says it would’ve been a positive decision with a positive answer, but it was merely a request, and the answer goes either yay or nay.

“We respect whatever council does when they do their decision-making process, and we honour it,” he continued. “Receiving the letter of support certainly helps to build when asking for provincial money.”

The County of Lethbridge just donated $5,000 last week to the cause and Miller says other organizations and businesses have given as well.

“No matter how big or small, we value each donation, and collectively we can reach our goal,” Miller stated.

The goal is to raise $200,000 through all levels of potential government and other granting organizations, individuals and businesses to commission the monument during Veterans Week 2019, and that hasn’t changed.

“Our goal is to commission the monument during Veterans Week of this year. We could go on and drag this out for four years with the economy too, and there are always other projects out there to donate to. But we set a timeline, we set a goal, we put a stake in the ground, and we’re going to commission it based on total funds during Veterans Week.”

There was some criticism during the meeting about how many military-related monuments are already in the city, and other monuments in the city that aren’t militarily related requiring maintenance with costs near what Miller was asking for.

He says those discussions came after he was finished his presentation, and pointed out that some of the monuments are specifically for artillery where this project is a tribute for all veterans

“Battery Point is chosen because it was the location where the battery trained. With the last gun to fire in WWI, that’s a national historical significance that Lethbridge can be quite proud to claim. This helps to achieve that and educate Canadians and Lethbridge residents of the history that no one really knew until last year.”

Now the campaign has to wait and see whether they’ll be approved for funding from the province.

Should they be successful, at that point Miller says he would come back to council and be asking for perhaps, the difference, depending on the amount from the province.