Water conservation top priority for 2024, says Lethbridge Mayor

From water shortages to tightening budgets, Lethbridge city council has a lot on its plate in 2024.

Mayor Blaine Hyggen sat down with the CBC's Lethbridge Bureau reporter Ose Irete for a year-end interview to discuss some of council's priorities this new year.

Here is part of that conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity.

IRETE: Addiction and related issues like housing often require provincial and federal funding. However, what do you think the city can do within its powers to help?

HYGGEN: If we take things on as a community, there's lesser chance that the provincial or federal government will come with the dollars. So it's a really fine line on what we should do and what we can do.

We have put dollars forward to different grants where we will match [contributions from] other levels of government.

In the hope that they will move quicker on getting housing to Lethbridge, we put $5.4 million in three different resolutions here last year. [We said], "if the federal government matches us, we'll put these dollars in."

The dollars that we put in wouldn't be enough to construct all of the work being done by these organizations. That's why it's important to collaborate with other levels of government.

What we can do is make sure that the agencies that are working within our community have the support that they need. That's not just financial support. That's by answering the questions they have, advocating on their behalf, and signing letters to provincial and federal government.

Something we can do better is to connect these different organizations so we don't have duplication of services and they're more efficient in what they do.

What are the most pressing issues for the next two years of your term?

Water, wastewater. We are pretty much at capacity, so we're going to have to expand that infrastructure. It's not a "sexy" thing to say we're going to get water, wastewater, as much as this, to say we're going to get a new rink or a new pool. But it is of great importance.

How does the city plan to address the issue of water going forward?

We had voluntary water rationing for people's lawns this last year and we saw quite a remarkable savings in water. However, there's more that we can do, and that probably will happen. We've tasked administration to look into strategies moving forward. Instead of voluntary, we may have specific days for water rationing.