To help celebrate Pride Month in June, the City of Delta has launched initiatives and taken steps to show that the city is a place where everyone is welcome.
Ladner Trunk Road is lined with pride flag banners, pride benches are maintained out front of municipal buildings year-round, and the progress pride flag proudly flies in front of City Hall in Ladner.
Online, the City of Delta social media channels posted a video with interviews from city staff, Delta Pride Society board members, and Sher Vancouver founder Alex Sangha, all sharing messages of inclusion and the importance of Pride.
And recently, the Ally pin campaign was launched. The free, rainbow pins with All and messages of safety printed on them.
Ally pins can be found at: Delta City Hall, Ladner Leisure Centre, South Delta Recreation Centre, Winskill Aquatic and Fitness Centre, North Delta Recreation Centre, Sungod Recreation Centre, McKee Seniors Centre, Kennedy Seniors Centre, George Mackie Library, Ladner Pioneer Library, and Tsawwassen Public Library.
Mayor George Harvie believes that all these steps are important and necessary to make Delta a place where all feel safe and comfortable.
“The fact is, the mayor and council are responsible for the social fabric of our community. This is why I really believe in ensuring that everybody has a place, that everybody is welcome,” he said.
Harvie has also upgraded the Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Task Force to a Committee, on a one-year term. The committee is made up of eight or nine hand-picked community members, and is led by councillors Dylan Kruger and Jennifer Johal.
“We’re elected to represent the community, but we’ve all got our own blinders on based on our lived experience and we need to ensure that we have representation from all different parts of our community to ensure that we’re making decisions in the best way possible,” said Kruger.
