The good news for the Village of Lytton is that, following the devastating fire that destroyed 90 per cent of the buildings in the downtown core, seven new buildings are under construction and four more sites are under excavation.
The bad news is that it has taken almost three years to get to this stage, and those wanting to rebuild still face massive hurdles — and costs — before they can return. The site of Lytton mayor Denise O’Connor’s house on Fraser Street is one of those under excavation, and she explains what property owners who want to rebuild are facing.
“Once you get a building permit, before any work starts you have to have an archaeological work plan developed by an archaeologist, and the plan has to be approved by the province. It costs about $2,500 for a work plan to be made up, and that comes from the homeowner’s pocket; it’s not paid for by insurance.
“You also get a quote about how much it will cost to put the work plan into place. This involves having monitors to watch the excavating, an archaeologist to oversee it, sifting of the native soil, reporting, and administration.”
The quotes, she says, are coming back at anything from $20,000 to $80,000; the quote for her property was $45,000, and insurance does not cover the cost. While she notes that this is a quote, not an invoice, and that some people’s final bills have been lower than the initial quote, the stress and uncertainty have caused some residents to decide not to rebuild.
“The person who got the $80,000 quote isn’t coming back, even though they had already contracted with a builder. They just don’t have that money, even if it ends up being only half the quote."
The original debris, foundations, and toxic soil were removed and the sites backfilled, which took until last year. O’Connor says that once excavators start digging and get through the clean fill to native soil (soil that was there before the fire), they can only remove 10 cm of soil at a time — under the watchful eyes of monitors — in areas where archaeological monitoring work is required. The soil is dumped in piles, each with an orange flag, and 25 per cent of it is sifted. If nothing of archaeological significance is found, another 10 cm of soil can be removed, and the process starts again.
“Monitors will be watching through the entire process,” says O’Connor, describing that process — which follows the requirements of the BC Heritage Conservation Act — as “chaos.”
“Staff requested a clear process from the archaeological branch, and kept being told ‘We’re working on it.’ But the Heritage Conservation Act was developed for big projects like pipelines, not individual property owners. They didn’t get back to us until this spring, and it’s still confusing for people.
“It’s not about the archaeological work,” she adds. “We recognize that the village was inhabited by First Nation peoples for hundreds of years. It’s about property owners having to bear those costs.”
O’Connor says she’s aware of nine residential properties that have been sold by people who aren’t coming back, and another five commercial properties that have been sold, for varying reasons.
“Some did it right off the bat, because the whole trauma of being around Lytton was too much. Others have got settled in other places because of the time that’s gone by. Some had limited insurance, and others are still in limbo.”
One of the properties under construction is the Lytton Chinese Museum, and O’Connor says that AG Foods received a building permit in late June to begin rebuilding their grocery store at the corner of 2nd and Main. It will be a mixed-use retail building with accommodation upstairs.
“I don’t know the timeline [for rebuilding] yet, but a grocery store was high on everyone’s list, so people all around are ecstatic they got a permit.” Another welcome addition will be the Legion: “They’ve done lots of planning and that’s in the works at 4th and Fraser.”
The Village of Lytton is working on plans for municipal buildings, including a village office and a separate community space. The latter has had $64 million committed to it by Infrastructure Canada, and O’Connor says they’re checking all the boxes in order to apply for the funds.
“They haven’t given us $64 million, and we’re working through the process for applying. We’ve had some consultation in the community and with First Nations, and have a basic concept plan developed to submit with it, but that doesn’t mean that’s the plan.”
In order to qualify for the $64 million, the building must be built to net zero and be open to everyone. That means village office space does not qualify, but possibilities for the space could include a museum, visitor centre, library, a multi-use space, a community kitchen, a swimming pool, and outdoor festival space that could double as a location for the farmers’ market.
“It’s just a concept, and depends on whether or not we get funding,” says O’Connor. “And we’re not trying to build $64 million-worth; whatever we build, we have to be able to sustain and operate and maintain it. We’re looking at functional, usable, practical spaces: a community hub.”
The village has earmarked a site on Fraser Street — comprising the former sites of the Totem Motel (which the village now owns), the pool, and the museum — for a community hub. The village office will be in a separate building on another site, and staff are working on a permanent fire hall. A lot of young members have joined the fire department, which is up to 15 firefighters.
“We’ve contracted Jim McDonald as our Emergency Planning Consultant,” says O’Connor. “He’s helping us get everything back in place, all the training and paperwork and policies. He’s working on an Emergency Operations Centre, and working with the local Fire Smart committee. Emergency planning is his responsibility as well.”
Ever since the fire, the province has espoused the merits of community-led recovery. O’Connor acknowledges that Lytton is in a position to do that now, but right after the disaster it was a different matter.
“We were a community in trauma. We had lost almost everything, and like many other small communities we were without the expertise or capacity to manage a disaster. I believe we’d be no different to any other small community in this situation.”
She notes that while Merritt suffered disastrous flooding in November 2021, they didn’t lose everything.
“We hope the province will change its legislation to something that isn’t ‘one size fits all,’ something that takes into account varying situations and the capacity of a community.”
Looking back to when she and her fellow council members were elected in October 2022, O’Connor says back then it was “What can we do to move things faster?”
“We discovered there wasn’t a lot. It’s still incredibly slow. One thing we did do — and it took six months — was get staff in place who were the right fit. We’ve had staff in place consistently for just over a year, but prior to that staff were coming and going. How many recovery managers did we have?
“I think that’s made a huge difference. We lifted the State of Local Emergency a year ago, so people whose homes survived the fire could move back in. We’re finishing the backfilling and cleanup and remediation, and we’re getting to the last few properties very soon.”
A temporary village office is open, and bylaws are being put into place, to help the community move forward. And O’Connor points to what Lytton still has, from the G’wsep gas station, Kumsheen school, a temporary RCMP detachment, and 30 to 40 homes — mostly above the highway — that survived, to nearby Kumsheen rafting and Skihist park, where the campground opened this past May for the first time since 2021.
“Things have been moving forward consistently. It’s never fast enough, and we’re not able to change any of the bureaucracy from the province, but we are a lot more optimistic because of the number of things we’ve done in this past year.”
