Lytton, B.C., officials ‘immediately overwhelmed’ by wildfire rebuild, auditor says

The British Columbia government expected the small Village of Lytton to lead its own recovery from the wildfire that destroyed most of the community and killed two people in June 2021, a report from the office of the province’s auditor said.

But the report said officials with the village in B.C.’s southern Interior were “immediately overwhelmed by the magnitude of devastation” wrought by the fire and lacked the necessary staff and funds, prompting the province to step in.

Still, it said the B.C. government itself didn’t have a comprehensive legal framework to guide disaster recovery at the time, and its laws and policies were “not sufficient to guide the complex and unprecedented recovery of a whole community.”

In Lytton, most residents were “uninsured or underinsured” for fire damages, noted the report issued Tuesday by the office of Auditor General Bridget Parrish.

An interim provincial disaster recovery framework introduced in 2019 stated recovery processes were to be community led, the report said, adding the recovery in Lytton was the first time B.C. had put the guidance into action.

The approach at the time “expected communities to lead their own recovery regardless of capacity,” Parrish told a news conference on Tuesday.

In Lytton, she said the work was “very complex,” including environmental remediation and archeological work.

The auditor’s report also said B.C.’s Emergency Program Act was “silent” on the role of Indigenous Peoples in emergency management, and the lack of collaboration between the village and Nlaka’pamux governing bodies was a “missed opportunity.”

The absence of a legal framework “impeded” efforts to bring them together and a partnership failed to emerge, it said, though it cited examples of Lytton First Nation and the Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council offering support to the village.

B.C. government has since passed new emergency and disaster management legislation, which includes requirements for local authorities to work with Indigenous governments on emergency plans, the report noted.

Parrish said her office did not examine the new law or provide specific recommendations as part of its review, but the report outlined some “considerations” for its implementation moving forward.

Premier David Eby said the new law requires conversations between local governments and First Nations to happen before a potential emergency, marking a shift from how things unfolded in Lytton.

“This hopefully will be just one of the many improvements that have come about, hard lessons learned through … the terrible loss of property that took place in Lytton following that devastating fire,” Eby told an unrelated news conference on Tuesday.

Responding to the auditor’s report, Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene said the province welcomes the input and will “carefully consider” the findings to help strengthen disaster recovery for people and communities in B.C.

Greene said the report highlights the importance of the new Emergency and Disaster Management Act, replacing the previous “outdated” law, in better supporting preparedness, recovery and co-ordination between local governments and First Nations.

The new legislation “will help prevent what happened in Lytton’s recovery from happening again,” she said in a statement, adding lessons from the village helped inform its development.

“The Lytton wildfire had a profound impact on people, families and the entire community. It’s heartening to see people returning home after an unprecedented recovery process,” Greene said.

The mayor of Lytton, Denise O’Connor, was not available for an interview on Tuesday.

The community lost its grocery store, bank, post office, school, health centre and electrical infrastructure in the blaze, along with dozens of homes and “nearly all” municipal records, including building and planning bylaws, the auditor’s report said.

The blaze also destroyed 45 homes and several other buildings in nearby Lytton First Nation communities, it said.

After the fire, the land was covered in debris and contaminated by soot and ash containing asbestos and heavy metals, including lead, it said.

The report said archeological work became a “significant source of tension” as residents felt it was delaying the rebuilding process for their community.

The province “could not mitigate” those tensions, the report said, despite providing funds to the village to help offset the costs.

The auditor’s report noted archeological work “became the focus of negative attention,” though multiple factors, including significant debris removal, soil remediation and the lack of capacity at the village, affected the pace of rebuilding.

“Many residents were unwilling to accept that the work was required under provincial legislation,” it said, noting tensions came to a head in October 2023, when residents held a demonstration over archeology requirements.

B.C. initially provided money directly to the village for recovery, but after receiving incomplete spending and progress reports, it shifted to a reimbursement-based funding model in 2024, which is set to end next year, the report said.

The requirements of the new model include monthly reporting on the village’s engagement activities with Lytton First Nation and the Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council.

As of March 2025, the report said the village had provided all required reporting.

The shift followed the government’s hiring of a private firm to review the village’s use of provincial funds. The probe concluded village officials were acting in good faith, but they lacked capacity to manage the complex contracts required for recovery work, the auditor’s report said.

Parrish said her office did not look into why the village stopped making reports to the province, but there had been “a lot of turnover” among administrative staff.

Prior to the fire, the auditor’s report said the village employed six staff members, including a chief administrative officer, clerks and public works staff.

“There were no bylaw officers, planners, or engineers to inform recovery planning, and no recovery manager to co-ordinate it. The village had a small budget and low financial reserves,” the report said.

It noted the absence of formal reporting “did not mean that Emergency Management BC staff did not know what was happening in the village,” as provincial staff worked directly with officials in Lytton.

After the blaze, the report said the village’s costs multiplied, while its revenue base was limited by reduced taxes and service fees.

The complexity of Lytton’s recovery needs and lack of financial reserves contributed to its inability to “leverage” the two funding mechanisms under B.C.’s previous Emergency Program Act, the report said.

It said one of those mechanisms, disaster financial assistance, provided partial reimbursement for infrastructure repairs, but the village could not afford to pay the remaining portion. Lytton received only $48,000 in funding through the program.

In total, the report said the province distributed just over $51 million of more than $60 million in recovery funding committed to the village over the auditor’s examination period between June 30, 2021 and March 2025.

The village issued its first permit for a single-family home in October 2023 and by the end of March 2025, it had issued 33 residential and other building permits.

Parrish said her office chose last March as an end date for its review because most of the remediation work had been completed and building permits issued by then.

The report identified issues for the province to consider as it implements the new disaster management law, including anticipating recovery in communities with low cash reserves, agreements with Indigenous governments and developing a framework for assessing communities’ capacity to lead their own recovery.

The review was prompted by concerns raised by the public and members of the B.C. legislature about the progress and cost of recovery.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2026.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press