Lethbridge City Council has approved transitioning its committee structure to the Community Issues Committee. (Image Credit: Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

City of Lethbridge changing committee structure

Feb 12, 2026 | 11:17 AM

Lethbridge City Council has approved a change to the way it structures its committees.

On Tuesday, Feb. 11, members voted 7-2 in favour of Bylaw 6518 – Procedure Bylaw Amendment, which removes the five existing Standing Policy Committees (SPCs) and replaces them with a single Community Issues Committee (CIC).

Most SPCs are represented by four of the nine members of council. The only exception to this is the Economic and Finance SPC, which has all nine elected representatives.

The CIC will include all nine locally elected officials, ensuring each gets the same information on issues at the same time.

One benefit of this change, says Mayor Blaine Hyggen, is that it is more efficient.

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He explains that, if a matter related to public safety needed more discussion, it would have to be referred to the Safety and Social SPC. Depending on the council meeting schedule at the time, that could potentially mean waiting up to one month for that SPC to hear it, and it would still need to be referred back to city council for a decision.

Under the CIC model, a range of topics could be covered in a single meeting.

Councillor Belinda Crowson, however, questioned the need to restructure their committees and wondered if improvements could be made to the current model instead.

The SPC structure was introduced in 2021, and refinements were made two years later.

An official with the city says the SPC model was adopted after a several-month-long consultation process, but no consultations have been done on switching back to its former CIC structure.

Councillor Jenn Schmidt-Rempel notes that there are 13 fewer CIC meetings scheduled for 2026 than there were SPC meetings in 2025, and worries that this could result in fewer opportunities for public engagement on key issues.

Hyggen again noted the efficiency of the CIC model and said they do not need to have as many meetings.

The City will begin to transition to CIC meetings on February 19 and continue through the end of April.

The new Tuesday meeting schedule rotation will start in May. The revised schedule is available here.