City hires firm to help lobby province

With little success to show for its advocacy efforts with the UCP provincial government over the past year, city council opted to give a new avenue a try at Monday’s council meeting by officially hiring consultants Crown Strategic Consulting Inc. for a sixmonth trial period.

The consulting firm will help spearhead a new approach to lobbying the provincial government on the City’s behalf, stated Mayor Chris Spearman, who sponsored the council motion which passed unanimously.

“I think it is about priorities,” he said after the vote. “I think we are recognizing, and I think everyone recognizes, that the drug issue and drug-related crime are challenges for cities right across Alberta. Lethbridge being Alberta’s third-largest city, we seem to be missing out on programs that are available in the two larger cities. We need to find a way to make sure our needs are being paid attention to.”

The consulting firm would be paid $5,000 a month in fees and up to $1,000 a month for expenses during this six-month trial period.

“The people we are looking at hiring, Crown Strategic Consulting Inc., have extensive experience going back over 30 years working with the provincial governments,” explained Spearman. “We believe they have unique experience we could access. It’s really a minimal cost, $30,000 plus expenses, and a trial period for six months. It will allow city council to determine whether using an advocacy consultant would improve our opportunities for success with additional requests (to the Government of Alberta) going forward into the future.”

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