Council approves three-year funding for reconciliation initiatives
Poll
Should authorities crack down on churches that break public health orders for capacity, social distancing and masks?
Yes
City council approved $435,000 over three years to help fund initiatives arising from the Reconciliation Lethbridge Advisory Committee’s local calls-to-action emanating from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Women and Girls report during Tuesday’s council meeting.
Council was supposed to have heard a presentation from the group during the Sept. 28 Community Issues Committee meeting of city council where they would have formally made a request for funding prior to November’s budget discussions.
Blaine Hyggen not making plans yet
Poll
Yes
By Dale Woodward on January 12, 2021.
With Mayor Chris Spearman announcing he will not run for office again this fall, Lethbridge City Councillor Blaine Hyggen, whose name has been mentioned before as a possible mayoral candidate in 2021, says he will take some time discussing the possibilities with his family before deciding his own political future. “I acknowledge that there some questions are arising regarding my intentions for the upcoming municipal election,” Hyggen said in a statement released to local media. “This is something that my family and I will be discussing in a thoughtful, deliberate way and I will be announcing my plans sometime in the future. I will have no further comment regarding my intentions at this time, but I remain grateful to the community for their on-going support.”
We will not scrifice our core policing : Lethbridge police chief reacts to $1M budget cut calgary.ctvnews.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from calgary.ctvnews.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
LETHBRIDGE Lethbridge Police Service is embarking on a sweeping organizational review following a $1-million cut to the department’s operating budget in the coming year. The reduction in funding amounts to about 2.5 per cent of the total policing budget. Lethbridge police Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh says the service will now begin a review of all programs not tied to core policing. “We will not sacrifice our core policing function,” said Mehdizadeh. He added all programs and services outside of patrol and investigative teams would be on the table. LPS operates a number of community-based programs, including a school resource officer program, community and cultural liaison programs, and others.
City council passes revised budget
Poll
Yes
By Lethbridge Herald on December 14, 2020.
Deputy Mayor and Finance Committee chair Rob Miyashiro speaks to reporters Monday after council passed the revised 2021 and 2022 city budget. Herald photo by Ian Martens @IMartensHerald
Tim Kalinowski City council passed the revised 2021 and 2022 budget without further amendment during Monday’s council, bringing to a close a lengthy process which began over three weeks ago in Finance Committee. On the final day of deliberations two proposed amendments were defeated. Coun. Blaine Hyggen’s motion to rescind a $1-million cut to the police budget was defeated 6-3, with only Councillors Hyggen, Ryan Parker and Mayor Chris Spearman in favour of restoring the funds. Coun. Jeffrey Carlson’s amendment to reduce a proposed city council pay cut from 10 per cent to five per cent was defeated unanimously.