MGA changes could put more onus on cities

Provincial government proposals to change how cities raise money and interact with their neighbours also includes some additional burdens on city governments, said Mayor Ted Clugston.

Planned amendments to the Municipal Government Act would exempt the province from paying levies to connect new schools to municipal roads and utility lines.

“They’ll say that it’s saving schools money but it’s downloading the costs to municipalities that will have to pay the costs of servicing schools,” said Mayor Ted Clugston.

Medicine Hat has seen three brand new schools OK’d in the last four years, and likely won’t see more new builds soon.

The MGA changes also legislate an exemption for the province from paying grants-inlieu on its social housing units — an unpopular policy change in 2016.

Last month’s Saskatchewan budget cut a similar program that covered municipal taxes for Crown utility companies.

Those cities are threatening to sue.

Grocery battlefield

Stocking up for this weekend’s feast?

Running out for a bag of carrots or a chocolate bunny could look very different in Medicine Hat next year.

After some time in a holding pattern, construction on the planned south-end Save-onFoods location will begin soon. (A good rule of thumb is to add six to 10 months to any early stage construction timeline.)

On Thursday, Loblaws (Superstore) announced plans to spend $1.3 billion to open 30 new stores and renovate 500 others.

There’s no official word about a local happening but there’s a bumper crop of scuttlebutt that Hatters will soon see a ‘click and pick up’ online shopping service.

There is also a plan to begin offering fresh vegetable at select Loblaws-owned Shoppers locations, probably in larger centres.

Shoppers was acquired two years ago by the Weston family mega food retailer.

The Safeway-Sobey’s conglomeration that year resulted in the Competition Board forcing the sale of 30 locations to Save-On-Foods.

That grocery chain belongs to the Jim Pattison group, and recently Pattison — one of Canada’s richest men — told the

Business News Network that he would buy more locations off Sobey-parent Empire Co.

The new offer is unsolicited and might be a bit of a statement. (Empire’s blending of the two massive entities was a rough transition that brought drastic writedowns and board room changes last year).

Meanwhile, South Country Co-op, which similarly bought the Taber Safeway, recently held its first annual general meeting for local owner-members since its regional amalgamation last year.

The story is one of expansion and it may not be over yet, you heard here first.

New Co-op administration offices on 10th Ave. S.W. are set to open in June, by the way. The upper level of the 13th. Ave. Mall is being advertised for lease as professional and medical space.

A look ahead

Council convenes on Monday to discuss 2017 millrates and the city’s 2016 financial statements.

100 years ago

Three days after the battle of Vimy Ridge and five days after the United States entered the First World War, the News reprinted an editorial from the

New York Times 100 years ago this week.

“Canada has a new reason for pride,” it stated. “It was great good fortune for her that the taking of Vimy Ridge, for which the Allies had poured out so much of their blood, fell, in the long run, to her. April 9th, 1917, will be in Canada’s history, one of the great days, a day of glory to furnish inspiration to her sons for generations. Her new ally salutes her and rejoices with her.”

In Ottawa, corporate tax rates for 1917 showed firms that posted at least a 15 per cent profit would pay half the excess to the federal treasury. Above 20 per cent the rate rose to threefourths. There was no personal income tax at the time.

Mrs. Nancy Johnston, of Fourth St. in the Flats, received word that her son, Pte. William Johnston, 19, had been killed at the front. Her husband, Capt. William Johnston, Sr., had died two months earlier.

In the Alberta Legislature, the proposed “Cow Bill” would extend loans of $500 to practical farmers who would repay the loans during a five-year breeding program.