Hailing 2025 as a successful year, Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen addressed the city at his annual State of the City speech with a message of eagerness for 2026.
There’s been challenges and there’s always challenges within communities, but we focus on these positives and we’re going in the right direction — trending in the right direction,” said Hyggen.
“So, looking forward to what 2026 has to bring.”
Stability was the word of the day as Hyggen focused on what he says are the priorities of residents he heard during his re-election campaign last fall.
“The biggest, loud and clear, was focus on your needs instead of your wants.”
As a result, Hyggen says the city will ensure existing infrastructure is stable and ready for continued use before officials look into new developments.
“Infrastructure is not that bright, shiny, sexy thing because you’re not seeing it. It’s not a park, it’s not a pool or a recreational facility, but it’s important infrastructure that needs to be life-cycled and needs that work done on a regular basis so we don’t end up like what happened in Calgary,” said Hyggen.
The largest city in Alberta was used as an example of the risks associated with failing infrastructure during the speech.
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However, as Hyggen discussed to those in attendance, city council received a report earlier this week outlining the current state of the water system in the city.
According to experts, the risks in Lethbridge are far different than in Calgary.
“We’re in much better shape than a lot of other municipalities in the sense that, the way our system is configured, we can operate most of the system with any one of our facilities out of service. So, really much lower risk than other places,” said Adam McDonald, municipal engineering manager with the City of Lethbridge.
While this is reassuring to anyone concerned, Hyggen promises complacency won’t intervene.
“(City officials) will be continually looking into ways to make sure that our infrastructure is kept up,” said Hyggen.
For business leaders, this is exactly the path they want the city to take.
“Right now isn’t the idea of a shiny new object. Let’s take that car in that we have and give it a good wash and a good buff and make sure everything is operational,” said Cyndi Crane, president and CEO of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce.
“We do not want to be in the same position as other municipalities where their infrastructure is falling apart.”
She says businesses want stability and they will flourish if given it.
“Let’s be proactive and let’s work on the things that we have that are still really good and just keep them so that they’re really still functioning at that high level that we need.”
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