New Board of Governors installed at Lethbridge and District Exhibition

Serving as Co-Chairs are Lethbridge City Manager Lloyd Brierley and Lethbridge County Chief Administrative Officer Cole Beck.

The two other board members are City of Lethbridge Director of Community Services Carly Kleisinger and Lethbridge County Director of Corporate Services Jennifer Place.

Brierley spoke of the new board members with confidence.

“I might be biased, but I think the board is a great team, between the City of Lethbridge Administration and Lethbridge County Administration – great team with a lot of depth and knowledge in the group,” said Brierley, “With the understanding that’s been gained along the way to say, ok, what are some of the things we have seen that’s a concern and what do we need to work to address?”

The changes in Exhibition’s leadership came after the costs of the new Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre continued to rise and the organization incurred an estimated budget deficit of $6.5 million per year.

The provincial government denied an emergency funding request of $1.4 million for Exhibition back in December 2023, which kicked off the restructuring process.

Brierley explained that a major focus for the board over the coming year will be to conduct a full review of the Exhibition.

“The plans that, as a board, that we will look at and work through that will be informed by input by the Interim CEO, and the piece that intersects with that is the city-lead third-party review that will start to look at the bigger picture of how did we end up where we are today, and how does that inform any assumptions for the future,” said Brierley.

Regardless of what conclusions come from the review, officials at Exhibition remain optimistic about its future.

Beck outlined the importance the facility has to the agriculture-focused Lethbridge County.

“Lethbridge County, we consider ourselves the agricultural centre of the province – I mean, we do nearly $4 billion in agricultural economic activity in the region, so having an event centre and being able to showcase what we are, what the region represents, and all of those different activities is a real opportunity,” said Beck.

He added that one of the goals of the new management structure is to provide business continuity to Exhibition and its various stakeholders.

The results of the review are expected to be released in late 2024.

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by David Opinko

New Board of Governors installed at Lethbridge and District Exhibition

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