There’s an old saying along the lines of “If you can’t be a good example, you can at least serve as a horrible warning.”
The idea is that if you can’t do the right thing, you can do the wrong thing in such a spectacularly catastrophic fashion that others will be able to learn from your example what not to do in the same situation. I’m going to go out on a very short limb, and suggest that the B.C. provincial government’s actions when it comes to dealing with the aftermath of the Lytton fire will, in years to come, be held up as the gold standard of how not to deal with such a devastating disaster.
It has been two years since fire ripped through the community on June 30, 2021, destroying 90 per cent of the village as well as dozens of properties on Lytton First Nation land and in TNRD Area “I”. It’s been two years marked by confusion, delays, contradictory messaging, a constantly-rotating cast of characters, uncertainty, logistical issues, and a forest of red tape. Some of it is down to forces outside anyone’s control, such as the atmospheric river of November 2021 that shut down the highways into the community for weeks, but much — if not most — of it can be laid squarely at Victoria’s door.
That’s because the province has, for the last two years, clung to (and repeatedly expressed publicly) the view that the recovery and rebuilding of Lytton should be led and directed by the Village of Lytton council and staff. Victoria would supply the money (belatedly), but would defer to the local government when it came to moving forward.
It’s a stance that is — how to put this politely — bullcrap. There is not a single local government in the province, save for a tiny handful of the very largest ones, that has the knowledge, background, training, and expertise to deal with a disaster of this magnitude. Communities the size of Lytton have to outsource many things that in Vancouver or Surrey would have whole departments full of staff dedicated to them. How on Earth did anyone in Victoria think that Lytton had the capacity to lead the way?
This is in no way intended as a slight to council and staff, who found themselves dealing with the aftermath of one of the worst peacetime disasters in Canadian history. Local governments are creatures of the province, and here in B.C. they are created by Victoria, which stands as a parent figure. In the case of Lytton, the “parent” needed to step in and take charge, and they signally failed to do so, leaving its ill-equipped offspring to try to figure out the way forward.
In this space on July 15, 2021 I wrote that what was needed was a Lytton “supremo”: someone appointed by the provincial or federal government who would take charge of Lytton. The supremo would be the “buck stops here” person, a big-picture sort who would manage all aspects of the project. “[The supremo] has (or makes) the contacts, and has the team to get it done,” I wrote back then. “This is not an ‘off the side of the desk’ job; this is a full-time position, laser-focused on one thing.
“Will this happen? Who knows? It would take a fair bit of money and political will to appoint a Lytton supremo and the necessary team, and keep it all going for the years that rebuilding Lytton will undoubtedly take. Could it happen? Well, the answer to that is a definite ‘Yes.’ It could happen. More to the point, it should happen. Here’s hoping that someone gets the message — soon — and makes it happen.”
READ MORE: The Editor’s Desk: Wanted: Lytton supremo
I do not claim any special perspicacity for noting the above two years ago; it seemed blindingly obvious common sense. Victoria, however, clearly begged to differ, and two years later here we are, or more accurately aren’t. Books will be written about what happened in Lytton, and I strongly suspect that the provincial government will stand out as a glaringly horrible warning.
editorial@accjournal.ca
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