A mayor forced to FOI his own city, and a rival crying “stunt.” Someone isn’t telling Delta the truth, and time is running out.
IT is a question that should send a chill through every corridor of Delta City Hall: How does the mayor of a city end up filing a freedom-of-information request against his own government just to find out how public money was spent?
That is exactly what Mayor George Harvie says happened. At a Delta Chamber of Commerce forum, and again on CBC’s mayoral debate, Harvie told voters he was forced to hire his own lawyer and turn to FOI to pry loose the city’s legal cost figures.
What he found, according to FOI records, was a bill of more than $213,000 before GST. It was paid by Delta taxpayers over a 2024 lawsuit that named both the City of Delta and Councillor Dylan Kruger. The allegations in that suit were denied and never proven in court.
Kruger’s answer was blunt. The man now fighting Harvie for the mayor’s chair dismissed the entire account as a political stunt.
Two of Delta’s most powerful politicians. Two stories that cannot both be true. And just weeks before Delta goes to the polls.
Somebody’s version is wrong
If the mayor is telling the truth, Delta’s elected chief executive was shut out of basic spending information by his own administration. That raises uncomfortable questions: who decided the mayor shouldn’t see the numbers, and what else has been kept behind closed doors?
If the mayor is not telling the truth, he has accused his own city of stonewalling him in the heat of an election. That is a serious charge to make without proof.
There is no comfortable middle ground. One account will be shown to be true, the other false.
Photo: City of Delta
The paper trail no one has produced
The truth is not buried. It sits in the City of Delta’s own files:
* any request the mayor made for the legal cost information, and the reply he received;
* the policy, if any, that was used to keep it from him;
* a full breakdown of the legal bills, including exactly who each lawyer was paid to defend;
* who at city hall knew the figures, and when they knew.
Not one of those records has seen daylight.
Put up or clear the air
Voters have heard enough campaign lines. What they need now is proof:
* Mayor Harvie can produce the requests and correspondence showing he was refused.
* Councillor Kruger can say plainly whether he believes the information was ever withheld, and whether taxpayers footed the bill for his personal defence.
* The City of Delta can confirm or deny that its own mayor was stonewalled, and open its books on the full cost.
The clock is ticking
The VOICE is hereby formally asking Mayor Harvie and Councillor Kruger to answer these questions and to produce the records that support their accounts. We are asking both to respond without delay, and well before Delta residents vote on October 17. Voters are entitled to know the truth before they cast their ballots, not after.
