Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf (left) with City Mayor Chris Spearman before Spearman's participation in the caucus on Sept. 12, 2019 (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Lethbridge hosts Alberta Mid-sized Mayors’ and CAOs’ Caucus

Sep 12, 2019 | 12:24 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Over 20 municipalities are being represented in Lethbridge today, Sept. 12.

The City is hosting the Alberta Mid-sized Mayors’ and CAOs’ Caucus at the Galt Museum.

Lethbridge Mayor Chris Spearman told media that the event is a great opportunity to share ideas and begin to build a strong relationship with the provincial government.

“The Blue Ribbon Panel came out with its recommendations last week. The government’s been clear that they want to focus on red tape reduction, they want to focus on attracting investment and building the Alberta economy. They recognize that we have issues in terms of the province’s finances, so it’s about working with the provincial government. We have to focus as municipalities on the same priorities and work with the government to make sure that we can be successful together,” he said.

The Honourable Kacey Madu, Minister of Municipal Affairs, was on hand earlier this morning, and Spearman said dialogue with Madu was “very positive”.

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On the topic of finances and sharing funds between larger cities like Calgary or Edmonton with medium-sized markets such as Lethbridge, Madu said that it’s important to work together to make sure that there is sharing in times of prosperity as well as times of financial strain.

“My commitment to them is that I will walk with them to make sure that we rebuild our province and ensure that they have the resources that they need to tackle some of their municipal priorities,” Madu commented.

“We’ve taken the first step in terms of building the relationship (with the province). We need to work together through the next two years or more as we go through a period of fiscal restraint,” Spearman added.

“Municipalities have to emphasize what’s important to them and what their priorities are going to be so that we can go forward and still be successful in attracting new investment and growing our economy.”

Spearman said a community like Lethbridge can’t necessarily learn much from larger areas like Calgary when it comes to best practices, and that’s why a meeting such as this holds such value.

“Here we’ve got 21 cities working together at this meeting who are all very similar and have similar challenges…the fact that 21 cities can get together and talk about things in common, I think is something very special,” he said.

MORTGAGE STRESS TEST

Spearman said another topic of note at the caucus is the mortgage stress test and some of the concerns that have arisen since that was introduced in January 2018.

“One of the economic drivers in the economy is home building and providing housing. There are artificial barriers we think are holding the economy back. Home building across Alberta is coming to a grinding halt because people don’t pass the stress test to qualify for mortgage funding,” he remarked.

“So, we believe there are things the province could be doing to help homebuyers. We’ll be talking about how we can advocate for removing those restrictions so people can more affordably access new housing.”

Spearman added that he believes this is a problem across all of Alberta, and the City of Lethbridge plans to bring a resolution forward to the Alberta Municipalities Association convention to remove barriers to mortgage access.

DETOX BEDS

On Wednesday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced that the provincial government would fund 4,000 addiction recovery beds over the four years, in a measure to combat the ongoing opioid crisis.

Spearman commented on that, saying he hopes that Lethbridge will receive a significant number of beds. His hope is to see at least 200.

“Clearly, we have one of the most severe issues in the province. I think having the Supervised Consumption Site has put us in contact with 1300 addicts and users and getting those people on the road to treatment and recovery is important,” he said.

“Let’s make sure those people are supported. We can assess them, give them hope for the future and put them on the road to recovery so they can become contributing members of our society.”

He said the idea would be to assess individuals and find the best ways to help them recover.

“One of the challenges with treatment and recovery is people often fail three or four times before they’re successful. We want to make sure that they have the best chance for success possible and people have opportunities for re-entry if they do fail. We need to make sure that they continue to be supported and given additional chances,” he said.

“We need to know that when people receive things like job training – that that actually exists, that opportunity exists. And we need to make sure that there aren’t artificial barriers like racism or other things which are keeping people from getting employed and accessing a healthy and productive life.”

He added that the motto in Lethbridge is providing a ‘gateway to opportunity’, adding that “has to be a gateway to opportunity for everybody”.

“I think (that) many of the social issues we’re facing are due to the fact that not everybody’s had the same opportunities.”

The caucus will last throughout the rest of the day, and elected officials will tour Lethbridge tonight before leaving the city tomorrow.