Delta South.
4 candidates, one seat.

The City of Delta acknowledges that its council meetings take place on the shared, traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the scəw̓aθən (Tsawwassen), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and other Coast Salish Peoples. Mayor George V. Harvie read the wording at the council meeting of 10 May 2021. The governments' 2009 backgrounder on the treaty says the Tsawwassen are Coast Salish people of the Hun’qum’i’num linguistic group, that in their language Tsawwassen means "the land facing the sea", and that they travelled and fished the waters of Georgia Strait and the lower Fraser River.

The Tsawwassen First Nation says in its own timeline that its people have been here since time immemorial. The same timeline says that sites at Whalen Farm and Beach Grove document a people well established in their territory between 400 and 200 BC, and that carbon dating confirmed sites within the historic winter village at 2260 BC. The City of Delta's Tsawwassen page says the Nation's people have used this land since at least 200 B.C. The City's heritage passport marks the southern end of a village built on an ancient beach above Boundary Bay and says that urban growth has largely destroyed this archaeological site.

The passport says the Tsawwassen First Nation Reserve was created at the winter village site of the Tsawwassen people. The Nation's timeline records that a colonial reserve was formally established in 1871, that it was enlarged to 490 acres (198 hectares) in 1874, and that its first official survey was completed in 1881.

BC Geographical Names says Ladner is named for William H. Ladner, who in 1867 pre-empted the land, one year before any other settlers arrived. He settled at Ladner's Landing in 1868 and pre-empted 160 acres. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography says his brother Thomas settled nearby in 1870. The record for the community says Ladner's Landing Post Office opened on 1 March 1875 and became Ladner Post Office on 1 July 1895.

Canada's Historic Places register dates the Government Wharf at the foot of Elliott Street to 1873. It says the wharf served paddle steamers and other boats, carried mail and trade, and drew the Delta Cannery of 1878 and sawmills, with Chinese workers coming for the cannery jobs. The City's passport says Donald Chisholm bought and surveyed the town site in the 1880s, and the street still carries his name. The Delta Hotel greeted arrivals at the wharf from the 1880s until 1923, when it burned down.

BC Geographical Names records that Delta was incorporated as a district municipality, The Corporation of Delta, on 10 November 1879. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography says William Ladner collected 25 of the 60 signatures on the petition and was elected reeve in 1880 and in 15 other years down to 1906. The passport says Ladner's Chinatown lined the dyke in the late 1800s and that much of it burned in 1929. A condominium and marina complex now covers the dyke and the field.

The City's passport says the farmers of East Delta built the first municipal dyke on Boundary Bay in 1892. The same plaque names the services they built in the area: East Delta School in 1888, St. Stephen's Church in 1891 and East Delta Community Hall in 1930. Canada's Historic Places register says the 1892 dyke let farming grow at Boundary Bay, and that Edwin Cammidge bought property there in 1885. The Cammidge house, a two-storey farmhouse built in 1914, moved in 1998 to Boundary Bay Regional Park. Metro Vancouver says its restoration was completed in 1999.

According to the passport, the Westham Island Bridge opened in March 1910 with a lavish banquet and ended the isolation of the island's residents. The railway reached Port Guichon in 1903, and the passport says the town then replaced Ladner as Delta's transportation centre. At first the train stopped on the wharf to meet steamships from Victoria. In 1924 the station moved to Savoy Street, and the line served the sawmill, hotel, farms and canneries of Port Guichon into the 1930s.

Oyster farming also shaped the shore. The passport says that between 1940 and 1963, 50% of the province's oyster production came from Boundary Bay, until water pollution forced the industry to close. A photograph in the passport shows Sikh workers at the B.C. Packers oyster plant in circa 1950.

The Encyclopedia of British Columbia, published by KnowBC, says BC Ferry Corp began in 1958 during a labour dispute that shut down the privately owned ferry service between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Premier W.A.C. Bennett said his government would enter the ferry business. The ferries Sidney and Tsawwassen began operating in June 1960 between Swartz Bay, north of Victoria, and Tsawwassen.

The Tsawwassen First Nation's timeline says construction of the ferry terminal started in 1958, that the provincial government tore down the Nation's longhouse during the causeway work, and that the terminal and causeway were expanded in 1973, in 1976 and in 1991. The Nation says it began building a new longhouse on its reserve in 1995 and completed it in 1997.

The same timeline says construction of the Roberts Bank port began in 1968 and that by 1983 it had become a 113-hectare island with a rail line along its causeway. KnowBC says the coal terminal opened in 1970, was enlarged in 1983 and is operated by Westshore Terminals under a lease from the Port of Vancouver, and that the Deltaport container terminal opened in 1997.

The Nation's timeline says it entered the formal treaty process in 1993. Its members voted on 10 December 2003 to approve an agreement in principle, and Chief Kim Baird signed it in March 2004. The Government of Canada says the Final Agreement was initialled in December 2006 and that Tsawwassen members ratified it in July 2007, with 70 percent of eligible members voting in favour. The three parties signed it on 6 December 2007. The BC Treaty Commission says Parliament gave it Royal Assent on 26 June 2008, and that it took effect on 3 April 2009.

The governments' backgrounder of 3 April 2009 sets out the terms in 2009 dollars. The land is 724 hectares, which includes 372 hectares of provincial Crown land and 290 hectares of the former reserve. A further 62 hectares of other lands stay under the Corporation of Delta's jurisdiction. The Nation holds the land in fee simple, which the governments describe as ownership that gives the Nation flexibility to manage land for short and long-term goals. The agreement provides a capital transfer of $14.8 million over 10 years, less outstanding negotiation loans, and $2 million for the release of mineral rights under former reserve lands. Annual transfers of $2.9 million are reviewed every five years, and one-time funding totals $16.8 million.

Members may harvest fish, wildlife and migratory birds for food, social and ceremonial purposes in specified areas. Canada issues commercial licences for up to 0.78 per cent of the Canadian commercial total catch of Fraser River sockeye, 3.27 per cent of the terminal commercial catch of Fraser River chum and 0.78 per cent of the Canadian commercial total catch of Fraser River pink salmon. Tsawwassen laws operate alongside BC and Canadian laws, and the Indian Act no longer applies to the Nation, its lands or its members except to determine Indian status. Members living on Tsawwassen Lands have statutory exemptions from income and property taxes for 12 years and from transaction taxes for eight years. The Nation's treaty page says it has a first right to buy up to 278 hectares of Brunswick Point lands for 80 years after the effective date, and that it became the first First Nation to join Metro Vancouver as a full member.

The Nation's timeline says a neighbourhood plan in 2011 designated 110 hectares for commercial and residential development. In 2012 ground was broken on a 42-lot subdivision called Tsawwassen Shores, in partnership with Aquilini Development, and members voted that year to lease the commercial lands for Tsawwassen Mills and Tsawwassen Commons. In 2013 the Nation signed a 25-year lease on 155 hectares of agricultural land with three farms. In 2014 it signed a 99-year lease with Ivanhoe Cambridge for Tsawwassen Mills, which it calls the largest real estate deal in the province.

The joint implementation report of the three governments says Tsawwassen Mills opened on 5 October 2016 with 111,500 square metres of retail space, a 1,100-seat food hall and the work of several Tsawwassen First Nation artists. Stores then opened in Tsawwassen Commons, a 51,100 square metre retail development. The Nation's timeline adds that it completed the Highway 17 widening needed to reach its lands in 2016, and that a logistics facility with Amazon as its anchor tenant was completed in 2018.

BC Geographical Names lists the George C. Reifel Bird Sanctuary as a migratory bird sanctuary established in 1967, with 376 hectares that overlap the Alaksen National Wildlife Area. KnowBC says it lies at the north end of Westham Island, that the land was leased from the farmer George H. Reifel, who donated it to the Crown in 1973, and that the BC Waterfowl Society operates it. The City of Delta calls Ladner the main hub of Delta's agriculture industry, with Westham Island farms and roadside farmstands.

Metro Vancouver describes Boundary Bay Regional Park as an Important Bird Area and a rest stop for thousands of birds on the Pacific Flyway migration route. The park includes Centennial Beach, and the Dyke Trail runs 17 kilometres from 17A Avenue to Mud Bay.

The City says Ladner Pioneer May Days has been part of its history since 1896 and runs each May, with a parade on the Sunday. On 29 February 2024 the City named Ladner Village and Tsawwassen at 56 Street among four primary strategic growth areas, and Council adopted its new Official Community Plan on 8 July 2024. The City says the plan helps it meet a Housing Target Order of 3,607 net new units over five years.