Desk overlooking the Inner Harbor and BC Legislature in Victoria: hotel key, blank name badge, ferry ticket, a receipt marked $4,000?, and a public-records request folder. Empty chair.
Delta Estimated $4,000 Per Attendee for the 2025 UBCM Convention — What Did Taxpayers Actually Pay?

Delta Estimated $4,000 Per Attendee for the 2025 UBCM Convention — What Did Taxpayers Actually Pay?

A City of Delta Council report estimated that attending the September 2025 Union of BC Municipalities convention in Victoria would cost approximately $4,000 for each councillor and staff member attending.

According to the City’s June 16, 2025 report, the estimate covered travel, accommodation, convention registration and per diem.

The $4,000 was an estimated cost for attending the complete convention—not the cost of one ministerial meeting. The convention ran from September 22 to 26, 2025.

However, the estimate raises fair public-interest questions:

How many Delta representatives attended, what did each person actually claim, how long did each person stay and what official work did each elected representative complete?

Delta Confirms That the Ministerial Meeting Occurred

A separate City Council report, titled “2026 UBCM Minister Meeting Requests,” states that during the 2025 convention, the City of Delta met with Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Randene Neill regarding:

  • Water Sustainability Act approval timelines;
  • water-lot leases and float homes; and
  • dredging of the Lower Fraser secondary channels.

The City’s October 7, 2025 UBCM news release also confirms that ministerial discussions included dredging and Water Sustainability Act permitting.

However, the publicly available reports reviewed by DCC Now do not identify which individual councillors or staff members attended the meeting with Minister Neill.

One Councillor Has Confirmed Her Absence

Councillor Jennifer Johal has publicly stated that she did not attend the meeting. She explained that she was participating in an online meeting with her family and lawyer concerning her father-in-law’s affairs following his passing.

Her family circumstances should be treated respectfully.

Nevertheless, an elected official’s participation in a publicly funded convention remains a legitimate matter of public accountability. An absence from one meeting does not establish that the councillor failed to perform other convention duties. It also does not prove that other councillors were absent.

The existing public record confirms that the City met with Minister Neill, but it does not disclose who represented Delta inside that particular meeting.

The Public Record Should Answer These Questions

DCC Now is asking the City of Delta to disclose:

  1. How many councillors and City staff attended the 2025 UBCM convention?
  2. What was the final registration, transportation, accommodation, meal and per-diem cost associated with each attendee?
  3. On which dates did each attendee arrive in and depart from Victoria?
  4. Which councillors and staff members were invited or scheduled to attend the meeting with Minister Neill?
  5. Who actually attended that meeting?
  6. Did any scheduled representative notify the City that they could not attend, and was another representative assigned in their place?
  7. Which other ministerial meetings, convention sessions and official duties did each publicly funded elected representative attend?

Estimated Cost Is Not the Same as Actual Spending

DCC Now is not reporting that every attendee necessarily spent exactly $4,000.

The figure was the City’s advance estimate. Some people may have attended fewer days, incurred lower expenses or used different travel and accommodation arrangements. The final expense records are required before the actual cost can be established.

DCC Now is also not alleging, based on the information presently available, that public funds were misused.

The issue is transparency: when attendance is publicly funded, residents should be able to determine who attended, what it cost and what official work was performed.

Public Money Requires a Public Accounting

UBCM conventions provide municipalities with valuable opportunities to meet provincial decision-makers, advocate for funding and advance local priorities.

Those opportunities also come with a responsibility to account for public expenditures.

The City should release the final expenses, travel dates, ministerial-meeting invitations and attendance records so Delta residents can evaluate the facts for themselves.

Until those records are available, political claims about who “no-showed” should not be presented as established fact.

Sources

Sarbjot Singh Locham
Resident & Editor, DCC Now – Delta Community Concerns
info@dccnow.com • dccnow.com • Independent Community Reporting • Public Records • Transparency • Accountability

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