Lack of funds could halt Lytton rebuilding work

Holly McKeen photo

In late March, Lytton’s council got some good news: by May, some residents could be allowed to take back control of their properties and finally start to rebuild homes incinerated in the town’s 2021 fire.

Today, though, the story seems potentially less rosy, with a lack of money and bureaucratic hurdles possibly forcing those residents to wait even longer.

The latest potential delays in Lytton are a combination of the same four forces that have thus far left the village’s rebuilding a dream, rather than an active construction site. The Current previously wrote about how the time-consuming work of dealing with contaminants and archeological investigations have been compounded by institutional incapacity and provincial bureaucracy.

And although all four factors are now well-established and known to government, they look set to once again leave displaced residents waiting as government paperwork grinds the process to a halt.

The current problem could be most critically felt by the owners of approximately 20 properties where almost all the contaminant and archeological work has been completed. By May, some those properties will be little more than large holes where contaminant material has been removed. They will require only backfilling with clean material before their owners can proceed with rebuilding. That was the good news that was delivered to Lytton councillors in late March.

But around the same time, the councillors were told that their village could lack the money needed to complete that backfilling work. That looming financial stop sign is now immediately ahead.

The village has enough money to pay contractors through the end of April. But once May hits, it will be out of money, James Heigh, a recovery project manager contracted by The Village, told The Current late last week. Lytton does expect to receive more funds to complete the work, and Mayor Denise O’Connor says the village and the province are working together to hasten the recovery process, but it’s unclear how long it will take for the money to get into the village’s bank account so it can be used.

The province previously provided the village with $18.4 million to pay for the decontamination of properties, and to undertake any necessary archeology work if properties are found to contain items of historical significance. But the village has long run out of that money, and later received another $5 million to continue work.

That money is now set to be exhausted. The problem is not wasteful spending, but the fact that the scope of necessary work has dramatically expanded since that first grant was handed to the village.

“The $18.4 million was always known to be not enough to do the work,” Heigh said. “It was based on the original quotes that were coming in from the insurance industry based on the work they had contemplated doing. They never contemplated cleaning up the soil. They never contemplated doing archeology.”

On the archeological side, far more artifacts have been found than had been expected, Heigh said.

When first applying to the province for funding help to remediate the village site, Lytton project leaders had budgeted $1 million to be spent on archeological work. That budget was based on the money required by a similar project in Burnaby, where water system work had encountered historical remains at a single site. Since beginning archeological work in Lytton last year, workers have found artifacts at 95 different sites. (That work, and the paperwork it necessitates, is still ongoing.)

“We budgeted $1 million for one find, and found 95,” Heigh said.

The owners of those 95 different sites won’t be able to build immediately. They’ll be provided a map of where artifacts were found, and will need to obtain heritage alteration permits if they wish to build upon the sites. They could also choose to build on parts of their properties where items were not found, Heigh said. But even then, if they dig and turn up an artifact, they may have to stop work.

Some residents, Heigh said, have asked why Lytton is being “singled out” when it comes to requirements for a full and careful archeological assessment of the townsite. Many other rebuilds have not required such rigorous archeological work and, partly as a result, have been much quicker. Heigh stressed that, Lytton is abiding by legislation, much of which is relatively new.

Other places may not be, but the archeological work, Heigh said, is valuable and necessary.

“It’s such an opportunity for [the] reclaiming of history.”

But it is costly and time-consuming. Those costs are linked to the current delays that threaten to bring all soil-related activity to a halt. But the latest hold-up is a paper and bureaucracy problem, not an artifact problem.

It’s also emblematic of a large variety of bureaucratic issues that have slowed activity for nearly two years.

In this case, the money is running out, and although the village has discussed future funding requirements with the Province, as of last week, Lytton had not yet applied for a larger grant,

The province, Heigh said, has previously indicated that it won’t provide more money until the existing funds are exhausted.

“We flagged quite a while ago that we're going to exceed [the current funds] but the way that the province accounts, is they want to see money spent .. before they want to consider another request.”

Essentially, there is the belief that the province won’t sign another cheque before Lytton’s bank account is empty. If that’s not the case, it’s the perception by some in Lytton. Which is just as problematic. All the issues are compounded by communication challenges, the fact that Lytton has limited governance and institutional capacity and memory. Its council is new. Many of its staff are new.

“There’s a lot of lessons to be learned out of this—hopefully.”

The money is expected to flow, eventually, but the short-term result is more uncertainty and possibly yet another further delay. (Others, linked to archeological permitting, are also believed to be likely.)

The good news

There is still some good news.

In addition to the money it received to clean up the townsite, Lytton also received a $21 million grant to rebuild damaged and necessary water and wastewater infrastructure.

That money is sitting in a different bank account than that used to pay for the back-filling of properties, so it can’t be redesignated because it’s earmarked for other work.

But it is still useful, and officials do expect to start providing sewer and water connections in the spring.

“We’re still on track in that regard, where we could service lots and have water and wastewater for residents to rebuild in the spring,” Heigh said.

Some residents could choose to return to their properties and not have them back-filled, Heigh said. But that may be unlikely, because they would be leaving a promise of help on the table.

“They could choose to do backfilling on their own and rebuild, I suppose,” he said. “But the point of the grant was to reduce that financial burden on the residents, so I don't know who could afford to do that.”

So residents may have to wait a little longer for the rebuilding of Lytton to actually start.

This story has been updated to clarify the fact that the Village of Lytton expects to receive money from the Province at some point. The issue is the timing. So any stoppage of work in May is possibility, but not necessarily guaranteed (if the money issue is resolved).