In September 2014, the SSRP, became the second Regional Plan to be adopted by the Government of Alberta. The SSRP applies to roughly 84,000 square kilometers of southern Alberta and incorporates 84 municipalities and First Nations and nearly two million people. 

The SSRP outlines environmental, economic and social values and outcomes for this region of the province in line with the Land Use Framework. This framework is a provincial level strategy document designed to reduce conflict between competing demands for our land and resources.

All land use planners and decision-makers within the South Saskatchewan region, including at the City of Lethbridge, are required to demonstrate compliance with the strategic vision and outcomes of the SSRP when carrying out their normal functions and duties. They must review their planning and policy instruments to ensure they comply with this Regional Plan, and submit a Statutory Declaration that confirms this to the Province.

Planning & Design completed a series of data gathering and analysis projects in 2019, called the SSRP Compliance Initiative. This project involved a comprehensive review of our planning and policy instruments and a declaration that they are complaint with the SSRP. It helped the City understand what the vision of the SSRP means for Lethbridge and informed the creation of the Municipal Development Plan (MDP) in 2021.

SSRP Map

To ensure compliance with the SSRP, the City of Lethbridge undertook a series of data gathering and analysis projects, which are listed below:

Economy and Tourism Inventory

Relationship Inventory

Environmental and Historic Resources Strategy

Lethbridge Heritage Survey

Traditional Knowledge and Land Use Assessment

Traditional Knowledge and Land Use Assessment (Video)

Efficient Land Use Strategy

The City of Lethbridge submitted the Statutory Declaration confirming our compliance with the SSRP to the Province of Alberta in 2019.