By Adam Berls
PRINCE GEORGE — Prince George Mayor Simon Yu is facing criticism after publicly revealing details about a confidential whistleblower complaint that was previously discussed behind closed council doors.
The controversy stems from comments Yu made during a recent civic election forum that took place on September 27, and from an article in the Prince George Citizen, where he spoke at length about a whistleblower complaint involving a city employee and disclosed that he had personally spent nearly $26,000 on a legal investigation related to the matter.
“As the mayor of the City of Prince George, I had to spend $26,000 of my own money to protect one whistleblower from the city,” Yu said during the Sept. 27 forum.
In a social media post from Thursday morning, Yu argued that employees must be able to report concerns without fear of retaliation, describing whistleblower protection as a fundamental principle of good governance.
“We recently had an employee who found there was something wrong with some of the transactions between the city and the public,” Yu said. “She was afraid that if she reported that she would be retaliated against.”
According to Yu, the employee brought her concerns to him under the city’s former whistleblower policy. He said he disagreed with suggestions that the matter should be handled exclusively by administration and council and instead commissioned his own investigation.
Throughout his remarks in the social media post, Yu framed the issue...
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