A special closed-door meeting is being requested by four Prince George city councilors following recent public statements made on a confidential matter.
Councilors Tim Bennett, Susan Scott, Cori Ramsay and Ron Polillo provided Mayor Simon Yu 24 hours to respond to the request under the city’s Council procedures bylaw. As of Noon today (Thursday), Yu has yet to issue a response.
The matter in question center’s around a Prince George Citizen article published on Wednesday where Yu reportedly spent $25,000 to investigate a whistleblower complaint.
The article stated Yu brought the issue to light during a North Central Labour Council mayoral candidates forum on September 27th.
According to the Citizen, Yu provided letters written by a law firm he contracted under the condition the law firm and the whistleblower filing the complaint not be identified.
The longstanding newspaper received the first invoice in August of 2025 listing a payable amount just shy of $22,000.
According to the article, Yu sent the Citizen a second invoice back in March while a third was referenced but not provided.
Yu also mentioned the involved whistleblower reported to its boss that fees were wrongfully tacked on to several customers and the working relationship between the two fizzled to the point where they were suspended for six months and eventually let go.
Under the city’s old whistleblower policy, some situations allowed for alleged wrongdoing to be reported to the mayor, in which case, Yu was contacted by the ex-employee.
In February, the whistleblower came forward, and the current city council voted to amend the whistleblower policy slashing the option of reporting to the mayor among other changes that included banning anonymous complaints.
The Citizen noted Yu asked council to give the green light to approve spending and look into the report. The motion was later denied.
In an interview with MyPGNow.com, Scott stated she is alarmed by the recent findings mentioning that the Community Charter has specific rules on what constitutes an open meeting and a closed one.
“And there are further rules about information that is discussed in those meetings, what is public, what is not and if something has become public out of a closed meeting there is a process that involves all of city council. Not just one member.”
Scott, along with the rest of her colleagues, is frustrated by both the timing of the recent publication as well as the lack of communication from Yu to meet with them.
“It’s quite disappointing and it’s quite concerning to me as a citizen of Prince George that this can’t simply be done and dusted. If that doesn’t make sense than I think we could have a meeting and work out what is public and what is not and move forward.”
Scott believes there is a misconception about what constitutes a whistleblower policy.
“A whistleblower is in my reckoning an important function whereby an employee at any level of any organization that has this policy is able to come forward and reveal information that is connected to the issue at hand.”
“There is confusion between the word confidentiality and anonymity. I believe a whistleblower must be granted anonymity to a point and beyond that point it stays in the hands of the people laid out in the policy to investigate.”
“This is not something I ever thought would be a matter that we would be discussing. I simply don’t think it’s appropriate.”
MyPGNow.com placed a call to Simon Yu for a response but have not heard back yet.
The Municipal Election is set for Saturday with Yu attempting to secure a second term in the mayor’s chair.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing pgnews@vistaradio.ca.
