Allard Says She’ll Rebuild Trust in City Hall

Council candidate Kelly Allard says her number one priority if elected is to get city hall in order.

“There is so much infighting and everything at city hall. Nobody trusts Medicine Hat anymore, so we have to rebuild that trust and that means learning to play and work well together, which they haven’t been doing,” said Allard.

The longtime city resident whose worked and lived in the Hat for the past three decades as well as raised her children in the community said she believes the role of city councillor should be a fulltime position.

“You’re spending a little more time together, you can learn how to work together much more efficiently,” said Allard, who is a current journalist with the Medicine Hat Owl.

But it’s the issued of the city’s unhoused community which Allard sees as a concern which is continuing to impact Medicine Hat.

“Medicine Hat has failed our unhoused population. The Mustard Seed has failed the community and the population. We still don’t have a new overnight shelter location in place yet and here we are in August,” said Allard. “Even if they bought a property today, it’s going to take months to renovate and we’ll be lucky to have it in time for winter.”

Fiscal responsibility is also on her list of concerns to tackle if elected.

“I’ve seen council argue for hours over spending $10,000 but spend a million dollars at the drop of the hat,” she said.

And Allard said she’d like to see the city maintain infrastructure it already has, specifically mentioning the fountain at Riverside Veterans’ Memorial Park.

“It’s been busted for years. It should be fixed. My children played in it and I’d love for my grandchildren to play in it and it would be welcoming to visitors coming to downtown,” she said. “It should be a shining jewel in our downtown and they’ve allowed it to fall into disrepair.”

On the issue of council transparency, Allard said it appeared this current council initially took the concern to heart following it being an election talking point in 2024.

But Allard indicated that situation appeared to be reversed following comments from one this council’s several interim city managers, Merete Heggelund, regarding the release of an internal staff satisfaction survey.

“She said, ‘well, I’m not going to release this information to council because the department heads are going to feel bullied and put upon if this information is released,” she said. “You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know what’s wrong.”

Allard added it’s not about firing senior administrators but identifying corrective action which might be required.

Those issues continued with now suspended city manager Ann Mitchell who attempted to thwart access to information requests by members of the public.

When it comes to disclosing information, Allard said the city should be proactive in that regard as well as making sure councillors who are being sent to conference within and outside the province share with Hatters what they’ve learned.

Additionally, if councillors are getting gifts, she said those should be disclosed as well as providing a publicly available registry of who council is meeting with.

As a wife and mother, Allard said she would bring those inherent mediation skills to the council table if elected.