Council record · 2018–2026

Scott Harrison on Qualicum Beach Council, 2018–2026

Scott Harrison has been a Qualicum Beach councillor since November 2018. He is running for a third term on October 17, 2026. We read the minutes of every Council and Committee of the Whole meeting from November 2018 to July 2026. Council never censured him, and he never declared a conflict of interest. On Eaglecrest he was often the only vote against, though he moved second reading of the 2026 budget that carried the project. He missed 33 of 168 meetings this term, up from 9 of 191 in his first. We check his campaign claims in our fact check.

Two elections and his roles

Four councillors are elected at a time. In October 2018 Harrison came fourth of nine candidates, with 1,990 votes. That was 71 more than Jean Young, in fifth. In October 2022 he came fourth of ten, with 1,715 votes. That was 76 more than Peter Kent, in fifth.

In his first term his area of responsibility was Community Development. He was the councillor named to act for the Mayor from November 2020 to October 2021. Since 2022 his area has been Public Safety. Council also named him to the Select Committee on Public Safety, Accessibility & Emergency Preparedness and the Airport Users Committee, and as its contact with groups such as the Oceanside Task Force on Homelessness and the Eaglecrest Residents’ Association. This term Council’s rotation named him Acting Mayor for four three-month turns.

Sources: 2018 General Local Election, official results (Town of Qualicum Beach); 2022 General Local Election, official results (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Dec 17, 2018 (committee appointments; pride crosswalk study) (Town of Qualicum Beach); Inaugural Council minutes, Nov 7, 2022 (Town of Qualicum Beach)

His Eaglecrest votes

In 2021, four years before the Town agreed to buy Eaglecrest, Harrison moved that the Town not buy it. Only Mayor Wiese voted with him. Since 2025 he has been the only councillor recorded against the funding plan, the rezoning, the search for an operator and the budget increase. But he voted to seek bids to rebuild the course, and he moved second reading of the 2026 budget that carried the project. He was absent when it was adopted. Most of his own changes to the rezoning were defeated. Council did agree, in September 2025, to his motion to leave one parcel, at Country Club Drive and Highway 19A, out of the plan.

The purchase itself was decided in closed meetings. The Town has released those motions, including the October 27, 2025 direction to “proceed with the purchase of the Eaglecrest Golf Course Lands”. It has not released how anyone voted.

How Councillor Harrison voted on Eaglecrest decisions, 2021–2026
Date	Decision	Result	Harrison
Oct 6, 2021	His motion that the Town “will not purchase the Eaglecrest Golf Course, nor any portion thereof”	Failed 2–3	Moved it
Jun–Oct 2025	Buying the course: the purchase agreement, and removing its conditionsOn this site: The purchase agreement	Decided in closed meetings	Not recorded
Jul 23, 2025	Funding plan: $8,500,000 toward the purchase from reserves, other Town funds and future land sales, with other projects put offOn this site: Where the money came from, What was pushed back	Carried 4–1	Only vote against
Sep 17, 2025	Eaglecrest plan and zoning changes, first and second readingsOn this site: What residents told Council	Carried 4–1	Only vote against
Sep 17, 2025	Request for proposals to run the courseOn this site: The restaurant lease	Carried 4–1	Only vote against
Oct 22, 2025	Budget change adding $125,000 for Eaglecrest studies and $200,000 for servicing land to be soldOn this site: What the due diligence cost	Carried 4–1	Moved it, then recorded as the only vote against
Oct 22, 2025	His changes to the zoning: 1,000 m² minimum lots, and parkland on the upper north side	Defeated 1–4 and 2–3	For
Oct 22, 2025	Eaglecrest plan and zoning changes, third reading and adoptionOn this site: What residents told Council	Carried 4–1	Only vote against
Dec 10, 2025	Make all Eaglecrest housing small-scale, with other uses case by case (moved by Councillor Young)	Defeated 2–3	Seconded it
Dec 17, 2025	Request for proposals to rebuild the courseOn this site: The course contract	Carried unanimously	For
Feb 11, 2026	$1,181,800 contract to rebuild the course, and three related motionsOn this site: The course contract, How it grew	Carried 3–2	Against, with Councillor Young
Feb 25, 2026	2026–2030 Financial Plan, which carried the Eaglecrest project at $20,688,000: second readingOn this site: Paying the reserves back	Carried unanimously	Moved it
Mar 25, 2026	Same plan, third reading	Carried unanimously	For
Apr 1, 2026	Same plan, adopted	Carried unanimously	Absent
Apr 22, 2026	His motion: single-family (R1) zoning on the former 17th and 18th holes, and 50 units per hectare instead of 60	Defeated 2–3	Moved it
Jun 24 and Jul 15, 2026	Raising the Eaglecrest budget from $20,688,000 to $21,199,800On this site: The full Eaglecrest budget	Carried 4–1	Only vote against

In the April 2026 motion he wrote that the costs of the purchase were “entirely funded by development in a small area which will disproportionately have negative impacts on a small number of citizens, while the entire community has access to the assets”. As first written, his motion also asked staff to prepare an approval process for $5 million in borrowing right after the election, to offset lower land sale value. Councillor Young moved to strike that part, he seconded it, and all of Council agreed before the rest was defeated.

Meetings he missed

We counted every meeting with published minutes: regular and special Council meetings, public hearings, and Committee of the Whole meetings, where all of Council sits to discuss issues before deciding them. Closed meetings without published minutes aren’t counted, and neither is an April 2021 Committee of the Whole meeting that didn’t have a quorum.

Meetings Councillor Harrison missed, by term
Term	Council meetings	Committee of the Whole	All meetings
First term, Nov 2018 – Oct 2022	Missed 7 of 167	Missed 2 of 24	Missed 9 of 191
This term, Nov 2022 – Jul 2026	Missed 19 of 125	Missed 14 of 43	Missed 33 of 168

In his first term he missed no regular Council meeting. This term he missed 3 of 50; the rest were special Council and Committee of the Whole meetings. He missed the meetings that adopted the 2025 and 2026 budgets, on March 19, 2025 and April 1, 2026. He had voted against the 2025 budget at third reading. The minutes give no reason for any absence, and we found no leave of absence for him.

Sources: Council minutes, all meetings (Town of Qualicum Beach); Committee of the Whole minutes, all meetings (Town of Qualicum Beach); Special Council minutes, Mar 19, 2025 (2025–2029 Financial Plan adopted) (Town of Qualicum Beach); Special Council minutes, Apr 1, 2026 (2026–2030 Financial Plan adopted) (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Mar 12, 2025 (Town of Qualicum Beach)

His pay

In February 2019, three months into his first term, Council raised its own pay. Councillors went to $34,500 a year. In 2018, a councillor who served the whole year was paid $18,716. Harrison seconded first reading of the new pay bylaw and voted for it at all three readings; only Councillor Walker voted against. The minutes of the January 30 Committee of the Whole meeting list among his comments: “Hard to dedicate the time based on the stipend received”. Councillor Westbroek said part of the reason was a change in tax law that ended the tax-free part of Council pay. The minutes of the final vote, on February 25, don’t say who voted which way. Pay has risen with inflation each year since.

In April 2025 Council took up Harrison’s notice of motion that “per diems are no longer able to be claimed by members of Council”. It said Council’s pay had “significantly increased because of the past several years’ worth of inflation”. He then moved to put it off to the fall 2025 strategic planning sessions, and Council agreed unanimously. We found no later decision on it. In January 2026 he moved to keep Council pay at the 2019 rates plus the yearly inflation increase. It carried unanimously.

What the Town paid Councillor Harrison, 2018 to 2025
Year	Pay	Expenses
2018 (Nov–Dec)	$3,308	$3,333
2019	$34,500	$14,315
2020	$35,225	$445
2021	$35,506	$1,804
2022	$36,500	$4,478
2023	$39,019	$8,202
2024	$40,541	$4,366
2025	$41,595	$8,623

His 2019 expenses were the highest on Council, the Mayor’s included. In 2023 his were again the highest; in 2024 they were the lowest. The Town reports one expense total for each member and doesn’t say what it was for.

The code of conduct

In July 2021 Harrison voted with the rest of Council to ask staff for a report on options for a council code of conduct. In September 2021, he and Mayor Wiese were the two votes against having staff draft one “using the Standards of Conduct from North Cowichan as a starting point”. It carried 3–2. In February 2022 he seconded the motion that approved the finished Standards of Conduct Policy. It carried unanimously.

Sources: Regular Council minutes, Jul 21, 2021 (report on code of conduct options, p. 8) (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Sep 8, 2021 (code of conduct to be drafted, p. 11) (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Feb 2, 2022 (Standards of Conduct Policy approved, p. 7) (Town of Qualicum Beach)

The 2021 investigation findings

Councillor Robert Filmer alleged discrimination on Council (our page on his leave and the investigation). In 2021 the Town released its investigator’s findings on nine items. One, “August, 2020 – Councillor Harrison Coercion”, was about Harrison. The investigator found no sign that his statements were aimed at Filmer’s sexual orientation, and wrote that “The email stream was directly linked to the Council discussion on Council collectively supporting each other when being maligned by community groups.” The finding: “I conclude that there is no evidence of discrimination but acknowledge Councillor Filmer’s interpretation of the statements made by Councillor Harrison.”

Another item was about a motion Harrison seconded. On October 28, 2019, Council kept Councillor Westbroek as its alternate on the Regional District board until it named a successor, “no sooner than November 2020”. Under the order Council set in 2018, Councillor Walker was due to take that seat in November 2019. The minutes record only that the motion carried, not who voted which way. The investigator wrote: “This was a Council decision voted by the majority of Council with an intent to limit Councillor Walker’s possible involvement at the RDN.” The finding on Filmer’s complaint: “I find no evidence of discrimination towards Councillor Filmer.”

Sources: Findings: Innova Strategy Group investigation of Councillor Filmer’s allegations (2021) (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Oct 28, 2019 (Regional District alternate, p. 5) (Town of Qualicum Beach); Inaugural Council minutes, Nov 5, 2018 (Regional District alternates by year, p. 2) (Town of Qualicum Beach)

What we looked for and didn’t find

We searched the minutes of every Council and Committee of the Whole meeting from November 2018 to July 2026 for censures, sanctions, conflict of interest declarations, confidentiality breaches, code of conduct findings and bullying or harassment complaints. The open minutes record none involving Harrison. The only complaint about him we found is the 2020 item above, and the investigator found no discrimination. We found no leave of absence for him. Elections BC’s list of penalties has no entry for him.

Closed-meeting minutes are not public. So we can’t say how he voted on buying Eaglecrest, or on anything else decided behind closed doors.

Sources: Council minutes, all meetings (Town of Qualicum Beach); Committee of the Whole minutes, all meetings (Town of Qualicum Beach); Findings: Innova Strategy Group investigation of Councillor Filmer’s allegations (2021) (Town of Qualicum Beach); Administrative monetary penalties (Elections BC)

More on Scott Harrison

Council candidate

Scott Harrison Questionnaire
- Accurate × 9
- Misleading × 1
- Inaccurate × 1
- Not verified × 1
Harrison’s numbers mostly check out: the share of residents over 75, the small business tax base, the emptied affordable housing reserve and the unsold Eaglecrest land. One figure is wrong. The Town’s own housing plan says 48% of homes were built before 1990, not over half in the 1980s. His two refused duplexes mostly hold up: one was a duplex rezoning swapped for a house and suite, the other a lot split that would have added a home. One of his sharper claims doesn’t hold up. The Town’s records tie the rushed tree bylaw to Council’s own priorities, not to letters. A question he says he put to staff can’t be checked.

Everything on Scott Harrison · All fact checks · Qualicum Beach Election 2026