August, 2023

Delta councillors call for mayoralty candidate George Harvie to correct ‘distortion’

FOUR long-serving Delta councillors at a news conference on Tuesday, supported by a fifth councillor who was not present, demanded that George Harvie – Delta’s retired city manager currently seeking election as mayor – immediately correct his “deliberate distortion” of the historic record regarding his role in developing an ‘End of Service Benefit.’

Harvie prepared and submitted – with his signature affixed – a report to Council in December 2016 that recommended a financial benefit be paid to the mayor and councillors upon their departure from Council.

However, now that he is campaigning for elective office, Harvie has changed his tune, the councillors said. He recently submitted a statement to the Delta Optimist newspaper in which he declared that the End of Service Benefit “was a policy I took great exception to.”

Harvie also told the Optimist that “one of the key reasons I’m running for Mayor of Delta is that I don’t agree with the golden handshake.”

The four councillors who participated in the news conference, along with their fifth colleague, demand that Harvie immediately set straight the record, apologize to Delta voters and residents for misrepresenting the facts, and promptly bring an end to his “campaign of dishonesty and deception.”

Present at the news conference were incumbent councillors Jeannie Kanakos, Bruce McDonald, Sylvia Bishop and Robert Campbell.

Kanakos and McDonald are seeking re-election to Council as members of a slate called ‘Independents Working for You,’ while Campbell is running for re-election to Council on the ‘Team Delta’ slate.

Bishop, a two-term councillor now vying to become mayor, also is campaigning under the banner of ‘Team Delta.’ Not present at the news event was councillor Heather King, who currently is out of town. King is not seeking re-election to Delta’s City Council.

Harvie is atop a slate of candidates named ‘Achieving for Delta.’

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