Public record · Civic election 2026

Same Night, Two Votes: What Dec. 2, 2024 Actually Shows on a North Delta Rec Centre

DCC Now — Delta Community Concerns

September 11, 2026

Kruger voted for the citywide recreation levy that helps pay for Winskill. Hours later he voted against a second levy and a $120 million borrowing line for a North Delta centre that still had no site and no cost study. Both things are in the minutes. The fight is over what that sequence means.

Both campaigns keep pointing at the same Monday night meeting. One Delta says Mayor George Harvie “pledged” a new community levy for a North Delta recreation centre. Achieving for Delta says Councillor Dylan Kruger backed a 2% recreation levy for Winskill, then blocked a similar levy for North Delta.

This article is based on the City of Delta Regular Council minutes of December 2, 2024, and on the 2025 Financial Plan capital detail approved that night — not on either campaign’s summary.

What each side is saying

One Delta’s platform line is “no new taxes, levies or fees.” Its press material frames that as an answer to Harvie’s supposed levy pledge for North Delta.

Achieving for Delta’s posts say large recreation projects in Delta are funded by a loan or a citywide recreation levy; that Winskill was funded that way; that Harvie moved to fund a North Delta centre the same way; and that Kruger and allied councillors voted no — leaving, in their words, “no funding in place.”

What Council actually passed first

Earlier the same night, as Item 8, Council — Kruger included — unanimously approved the 2025–2029 Financial Plan. That plan already included the general 2% Recreation Capital Investment Levy. Council also gave unanimous first, second and third readings to Winskill Aquatic and Fitness Centre Loan Authorization Bylaw No. 8467, 2024 (Resolution No. R24/23-16).

The capital project sheet for Winskill (Attachment A, p. 43) is specific. Total project cost: $130 million. Anticipated capital borrowing: $120 million. Spending pattern: $10 million in 2024, $60 million in 2025, $60 million in 2026.

Then the North Delta motion — and the amendment that failed

Later, as Item 21, Kruger moved “Ensuring Fairness in Investment for North Delta,” seconded by Councillor Rod Binder. The motion directed staff to study North Delta infrastructure needs, including a feasibility study for a new recreation centre: potential sites, projected costs, and funding strategies. No levy. No dollar figure.

Before that motion was called, Mayor Harvie moved an amendment, seconded by Councillor Jessie Dosanjh, to:

(A) add a further 2% recreational levy in 2026 and another 2% recreational levy in 2027 to the five-year financial plan, for borrowing and construction of recreational infrastructure in North Delta; and

(B) show $60 million in borrowing proceeds in 2027 and $60 million in 2028 for a new North Delta recreation centre, “equal to the expenditures of the new Winskill Centre.”

That $120 million pattern is the Winskill borrow structure, shifted one year later.

The amendment was defeated (Resolution No. R24/23-29). Councillors Binder, Boisvert, Johal and Kruger are recorded as opposed in both official copies of the minutes. One signed copy also lists Councillor Alicia Guichon; the circulated copy does not. Kruger’s no is not in doubt.

Kruger’s original motion — the study, with no levy and no borrowing figure — then carried unanimously (Resolution No. R24/23-30).

What that sequence does and does not prove

Achieving for Delta’s underlying order of events is accurate. In one meeting Kruger voted for the general recreational capital levy tied to Winskill, then voted against a second, additional levy plus a $120 million borrowing commitment earmarked for North Delta. That is the record, not a misquote of it.

The two votes were not the same instrument. The levy Kruger supported was already in the financial plan. The measure he opposed would have locked a second levy and a specific borrow schedule onto a building that, that night, had no confirmed site, no staff cost estimate, and no completed feasibility study — the study his own motion asked staff to do.

Certified minutes record movers, seconders, and results. They do not record debate. Other coverage has attributed a “research first” rationale to Kruger. That comes from meeting reports, not from the minutes. DCC Now has not independently verified it against a recording or transcript.

The question still unanswered

Whether that no vote was a contradiction or fiscal caution is interpretation. Readers can differ.

What is not interpretation is the gap that remains. City staff have since put a North Delta facility in the $150–300 million range. As of September 11, 2026, neither campaign has published a dollar-figure municipal funding plan that pays for a facility in that range while also keeping a “no new taxes, levies or fees” pledge.

Source: Minutes, Regular Council, City of Delta, December 2, 2024 (Resolution Nos. R24/23-16, R24/23-29, R24/23-30); 2025 Financial Plan, Capital Plan detail, Winskill Aquatic and Fitness Centre (Attachment A, p. 43). More from DCC Now.