George Harvie (politician)

George V. Harvie[2] (born c. 1951)[3] is a Canadian politician. He has been mayor of the city of Delta, British Columbia since 2018.

Born in Vancouver, Harvie grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia.[4] Harvie was educated at Simon Fraser University, where he earned a B.A. in Economics. He also hold an Administrative Management Special Certificate and an Environmental Health Diploma of Technology from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and studied Advanced Management at Dalhousie University.[2] Upon getting married, he moved to Delta around 1976.[4]

Harvie was chief public health inspector in Burnaby during the 1980s,[5] and later became the city's deputy manager,[6] and was also the city's director of human resources.[2] Harvie served as Delta's chief administration officer (CAO) from 2001[7] to 2018. Harvie signed an initial four-year contract worth $600,000 to be CAO of the municipality.[6] As CAO of Delta, Harvie spearheaded a plan to "streamline" the city's administration and to make Delta more "business friendly". The plan included cutting his own staff from three to one, plus himself.[8] As CAO, he was in charge of about 1000 municipal employees and was responsible for carrying out council's decisions, including doing research to present to council.[3] He officially resigned as CAO in May 2018 when he announced his plans to run for mayor in the 2018 mayoral election for the "Achieving for Delta" slate, a new party which was named for Harvie's "past achievements" as CAO as well as his party's "future achievements".[9] His slate would include outgoing mayor Lois Jackson, who decided to run as a city councillor instead, after being mayor for 19 years.[10]

During the 2018 election campaign, Harvie was criticized for his time as Delta's chief administration officer, when he stated that a composting facility in the city's East Ladner neighbourhood did not need an air permit despite residents' complaints of foul odours.[11] Harvie was elected in the 2018 mayoral election in a three-way race, winning 40% of the vote, defeating former police chief Jim Cressford and city councillor Sylvia Bishop. Upon his election, he stated his priorities as lobbying for a new bridge over the Fraser River and "overhauling the building permit application process".[7] Building a bridge over the Fraser had been planned by the BC Liberal government, but was scrapped by the British Columbia New Democratic Party when they came to power in 2017.[12] Harvie would later change his position, supporting the replacement of the George Massey Tunnel rather than build a new bridge.[13]

Following his election, Harvie was criticized for a 'Delta first' plan that would charge residents of other municipalities more for using Delta recreational facilities.[14] As mayor, Harvie supported the construction of an industrial subdivision next to Burns Bog, an ecological conservancy area.[15] In December 2019, under his leadership, Delta legalized ridesharing companies.[16][17]