Lethbridge mayor sets sights recruiting doctors to settles in southern Alberta city

In a year-end interview, Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen, re-elected Oct. 20, chatted recently with Postmedia about what he heard from voters during the election campaign, how he believes police are handling crime in the city and what the priorities will be for the new council. 

What concerns did you hear from residents during the election campaign?

One of the top things comes up every election, and I’ve done a few of these, is public safety. Doctor recruitment and retention is another thing. There are many folks that don’t have a family physician. But I know that’s something not just across Alberta, (it’s) across Canada. And of course, taxation. It seems to be those three things are pretty popular.

How do you feel Lethbridge police is addressing crime in the city?

We’re doing incredible. The Crime Severity Index, we were at the top a few years ago, and that was concerning. We allocated additional funding to the police commission, which is passed along to the police service, to hire additional officers as well as support staff for them. We just had a culture change there as well with, I’m saying a new chief, but (Shahin Mehdizadeh) been there a few years now. He’s done an amazing job changing that culture at the police station.

We had the third largest drop in Canada (in the Crime Severity Index) here this last year, so that’s pretty exciting. We were down like 19 per cent compared to the same period in 2023. That’s the third consecutive year we’ve declined in this ranking. This is something we decided to invest in to because we heard loud and clear from not just residents but (also) downtown businesses and the like, and it has definitely paid off.

How has the city’s encampment strategy played into this?

Directly related. We had a very large issue with encampments in the community, and we heard that loud and clear. This year, it’s obviously night and day to what it was previously since council put dollars into an encampment strategy. And that’s not just to take people’s homes down. That was to find additional support services to help those that are struggling within our community. As we heard loud and clear from police that when encampments get entrenched, there’s crime that happens there, assaults, person and sexual assaults that happens when encampments get entrenched, gang activity, etc. By putting additional resources into the police, we’re able to combat some of that as well as having our encampment strategy outreach team which connects these folks with services in the community. We’ve been extremely successful with that.

What sort of things can the City of Lethbridge do to address getting more doctors?

Our whole plan is to promote Lethbridge so that it’s an inviting place for these doctors to come to. I sit on a board with a cardiologist here in Lethbridge, and she told me that the reason that she moved to Lethbridge was because of people here who reached out to her and sold Lethbridge as a safe community, a community where you can raise a family. It’s not too big and not too small. It’s close enough to Calgary if you need something in a bigger city and for shopping, but still a size where you have a lot of the different amenities and a lot of the different trails and pools and rinks and things for your kids to be able to do. That sold this particular doctor, and she’s told me time and time again that’s the same idea with other doctors that come to Lethbridge. If you can sell Lethbridge, although it is a provincial thing, hiring doctors, it gives us an opportunity to showcase what we have.

Is the City of Lethbridge putting money into recruitment efforts?

It’s not a large amount. We’ve purchased space, I think it was the Globe and Mail — we put a full-page ad in there. We’ve put about $15,000 into this strategy just to be able to try to recruit. It’s a pretty small amount, but it’s enough that we got our message across the country that we’re looking for doctors and here’s some of things that we showcased within our community. And it really has helped.

Word of mouth is everything. Some (physicians) are upset with the way things are happening with the provincial government, but when they talk to us at a municipal level, they’re happy with Lethbridge, they love Lethbridge, and they want to be able to raise their families here.

What challenges do Alberta’s and Lethbridge’s populations continuing grow present?

As you grow, you’re always going to have more activity when it comes to drug dealers or the like coming to your community. That’s got to include the continual investment in our police.

We had a large announcement (in November), one of the largest investments coming into West Lethbridge. It’s over $300 million (in) development, and that’s retail and business, hotel, etc. that are going to be going into that space. One of the challenges is making sure we have enough trades to be able to do this work and build the housing that we need all across Canada. We do need that same (housing) right here in Lethbridge.

We do have our capital budget coming up here next year, so we’ve got to focus on what is that we need to invest in in our community to continue sustainable growth.

What are the priorities for that capital budget?

We heard loud and clear on the campaign trail, all of us, is needs before wants. We’re going to really focus this next capital budget, and as a matter of fact the operating budget that comes shortly after, on needs. We’re seeing tax rates that are going up all across the province, and we’re not immune to that. But if we want to add those services, we need to understand and share with the public that that comes at a cost, and that is taxation increases.

What would you say is the general mood in Lethbridge?

We just had some citizen satisfaction surveys come back to council, and in those, we’ve seen the vast majority — 90 per cent — rate the quality of life in Lethbridge as good or very good. When you can have 90 per cent rate the quality of life as good or very good, to me I think we’re moving in the right direction.