File photo of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce office. The Chamber has issued a letter to the City of Lethbridge and Lethbridge & District Exhibition, in relation to the Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre. (Photo: LNN)

By Justin Goulet

Chamber of Commerce letter calls for more transparency from local organizations

Dec 13, 2023 | 2:18 PM

UPDATE – December 14, 2023

LETHBRIDGE, AB – In a notice issued on December 13, 2023, the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce thanked Lethbridge City Council, as well as Lethbridge & District Exhibition for its transparency at its December 12 meeting.

The Chamber stated, “At the City Council meeting, the Agri-food Hub & Trade Centre, and a report on the feasibility of repurposing the old pavilions for recreation programming were on the agenda. Initially listed in the agenda as Confidential Reports for the in camera portion of the meeting, these two reports were brought to the public meeting.”

The statement continued, “We thank Mayor [Blaine] Hyggen, Council and City Administration for their transparency at [Tuesday’s] meeting, and Lethbridge and District Exhibition CEO Mike Warkentin for being willing to publicly face difficult questioning from Council.

“The Lethbridge Chamber encourages Council and City Administration to continue working with the Lethbridge and District Exhibition, Government of Alberta and other stakeholders, with continued transparency, to find solutions for the Agri-food Hub & Trade Centre funding shortfall which expose Lethbridge taxpayers to the least possible risk, and work towards developing an operational structure which can ensure the success of the facility for decades to come.

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We thank you for your leadership, and look forward to the results of the independent third-party review of the Agri-food Hub facility and operations.”

ORIGINAL STORY – December 13, 2023

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce is asking for more transparency from both the City of Lethbridge and Lethbridge & District Exhibition.

A letter was issued by the Chamber’s CEO Cyndi Bester on December 11, 2023, citing the recent financial issues surrounding the newly constructed Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre.

READ MORE: Lethbridge & District Exhibition’s Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre opens doors

On November 28, The Exhibition’s CEO Mike Warkentin spoke before Lethbridge City Council, asking for financial aid related to the new facility. Following Warkentin’s presentation, council said it would provide $1 million, a $583,000 debt deferral and one-time funding of $500,000 if the provincial government agreed to provide $1.04 million in capital funding to support the Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre.

READ MORE: Lethbridge & District Exhibition seeking emergency funding

It was confirmed by Lethbridge mayor Blaine Hyggen on December 12 that the provincial government had denied the funding request.

READ MORE: Request for provincial funding for Lethbridge & District Exhibition rejected

The letter from the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce stated that the Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre has been and has the potential to continue being, a benefit to the community for decades to come.

However, the Chamber is asking the City of Lethbridge and The Exhibition to come together to find a solution to the project’s funding shortfall “that is acceptable to both parties while exposing taxpayers to minimal risk and determine a long-term plan for operations of the Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre”.

“The Chamber expresses our concern over transparency regarding this project and the finances thereof. We request that during this process, in good faith, the spirit of cooperation and a desire to see the Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre succeed, both the City of Lethbridge and Lethbridge & District Exhibition come together with full transparency, both with one another and the public, so that solutions can be found, and all citizens and businesses understand how we came to this situation, and how it will be resolved,” – letter from the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce to the City of Lethbridge and Lethbridge & District Exhibition, December 11, 2023

The Chamber is asking the City of Lethbridge to be mindful of some of its core organizational policies.

These policies include:

• Government should not directly compete with the private sector.
• Collaboration between government, community and industry is an effective way to increase economic opportunities.
• Fiscal responsibility and transparency should be a core component of all government decision making.

The Chamber included the following requests to mayor Hyggen, City Council and City of Lethbridge staff:

• That all future projects of a similar nature have contingencies in writing as to what will happen in the event of cost overruns – who will bear the burden of these costs; how that revenue will be generated; and what consequences, if any, will be experienced by all involved parties – prior to funding approval, to prevent these situations from happening again in the future.
• That future financial discussions are done with a greater level of transparency, and some details of these in-camera discussions be made public. The Chamber asks that the City trust that citizens and the business community which it represents are levelheaded adults, capable of handling bad news, and that the realities of these and other financial negotiations, without the need for granular detail or finger pointing, be made public. The Chamber said this will save the information becoming public knowledge at the eleventh hour, when it becomes a potentially catastrophic situation, which creates unnecessary stress and erodes citizens, the business community, and the Chamber’s trust in Council and City Administration.

While speaking with Lethbridge News Now, Chamber CEO Cyndi Bester said, “The Chamber of Commerce’s purpose is to be that convener, and that champion, and that catalyst.”

“The Agri-food Hub [and Trade Centre] is an economic opportunity, and at the same time, we have to treat that opportunity with caution because we do not want it to become a taxing nightmare.”

Bester added, “At the end, we’re a community of business members and citizens that need to understand, not all the fine details, but we need to stop some of the misinformation, stop the rumor mill, get to the facts and figure out a solution as a group to properly move forward.”

CITY OF LETHBRIDGE RESPONSE

The City of Lethbridge provided Lethbridge News Now with a response to the letter from the Chamber of Commerce on December 13. The response is as follows:

“The City of Lethbridge has received the correspondence from the Chamber of Commerce and understands the questions and concerns many of our stakeholders and residents have around this project.

The City has been, and continues to be, a strong supporter of the Agri-food Hub & Trade Centre. This is a world-class facility that presents tremendous opportunity for our community and our province. It’s important that we protect the significant financial investment the City has made in this facility, as well as the investments the Provincial Government and other funders have made in our community. We will continue to gather feedback and seek clarity and transparency to inform decision making moving forward.”

LETHBRIDGE & DISTRICT EXHIBITION RESPONSE

Lethbridge & District Exhibition also submitted a response to Lethbridge News Now on December 13, from CEO Mike Warkentin.

He said, “We appreciate the support of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce in urging all sides to find a solution that will make the Agri-food Hub & Trade Centre the long-term success story for Lethbridge and southern Alberta that we know it will be. We will continue to explore all options for the success and viability of both Lethbridge & District Exhibition and the Agri-food Hub & Trade Centre.”

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now.

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