The City of Lethbridge’s upcoming strategic plan for the 2012-2014 years was on display at city hall last semester for public commentary and review. Though there were public sessions for debate on the new budget and several presentations were made to the council on suggestions, no revised budget has been produced yet. A look at the budget begins with the mission of the city council “To Lead, To Serve, To Inspire” and many citizens of Lethbridge, the student population included, may find the proposed strategic plan inspiring indeed.
The first steps …

On Saturday, Feb. 11, nearly 40 concerned citizens took to crossing the 6thAve South cross walk at the corner of 10th Street near the curling rink and sports fields in an effort to raise awareness on pedestrian endangerment in Lethbridge. In the past six months there have been five fatal incidents involving pedestrians in the city of Lethbridge, including one witnessed by one of the protestors. Robin Thiessen-Hepher witnessed an 87-year-old woman run over by a car whilst on a crosswalk. The woman later died in hospital. This year, in …

Enormous ambassadors
Since United States President Barack Obama canned the XL Keystone Pipeline earlier this year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been looking for a new export partner for Canadian oil. After a recent trip to China, it seems the prime minister has found a new trading partner in the Asian economic giant, and has returned to Canada with successful agreements on a number of economic issues including oil export from the Alberta tar sands.
To solidify the deal, China has gifted two giant pandas to Canada for 10 years. The pandas, …

Last month President Mike Mahon announced the creation of a task force to look into the budgeting practices of the University of Lethbridge. The Task Force on Budget Process will be responsible for investigating current spending, as well as the development and implementation of new budgeting strategies to ensure a sustainable spending trend over the next few years. According to the web-page, this task force will review the current budget process and make recommendations to support both short- and long-term planning, ensure sound decision-making that reflects institutional priorities, and focus …

Four protesters arrested in the Castle on Feb. 1 are expected to appear in Court of Queen’s Bench in Calgary on Feb. 24.  The government sanctioned clear-cut logging project was to begin road-building operations near Beaver Mines Lake that day when protesters refusing to leave the site were arrested by RCMP.
Demonstrators were blocking the road in an effort to stop Cochrane-based company Spray Lake Sawmills from starting logging operations in the Castle.  The province’s department of Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) had issued a court order earlier that week for protesters …