Vaughn Palmer: Report lays out missed opportunities in Lytton rebuild |
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Vaughn Palmer: Report lays out missed opportunities in Lytton rebuild
Opinion: Victoria, Ottawa dealt directly with local First Nation despite village leading rebuild efforts, causing tense relationships
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VICTORIA — The B.C. NDP government and Lytton “missed” the opportunity to rebuild the destroyed village in collaboration with the local Indigenous community, says Auditor General Bridget Parrish.
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Her recent report on what went wrong describes how the effort got off to a good start with a joint federal-provincial letter of co-operation to the Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council, 10 days after fire ravaged the village.
Vaughn Palmer: Report lays out missed opportunities in Lytton rebuild Back to video
The two governments pledged to work with the local Indigenous council on a basis of “Aboriginal reconciliation, rights, respect, co-operation and partnership” in the July 10, 2021 statement.
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That was pretty much the high point of the relationship, judging from the auditor general’s post mortem, issued last week.
A full assessment of “whether the province fulfilled its commitments to the Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council was beyond the scope of our examination,” wrote Parrish.
Still, she provided enough detail on what derailed the good intentions, starting with the inadequacies of the provincial Emergency Management Act.
The province had pledged as of 2019 to reconcile its laws with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
However, the Act was not amended to incorporate the UN principles until the end of 2023, 2½ years after the fire.
“This lack of a legislative framework impeded the province’s efforts to bring together the Nlaka’pamux and the village to plan and participate in the municipality’s recovery,” says Parrish.
“Ultimately, a collaborative partnership failed to emerge. This was a missed opportunity for the village and the province.”
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Elected officials from Lytton were relegated to the sidelines when the provincial and federal governments drafted the July commitment letters, “despite the municipality’s central role leading its own recovery.”
The auditor general says the province tried to nurture collaboration at the local level by hiring a contractor “to develop a community recovery planning process for village and Indigenous communities.”
However, “we did not see evidence that this resulted in joint recovery activities.”
The tribal council made an effort of its own, offering Lytton a memorandum of understanding to “identify priorities for recovery, and set out how the parties would work together.”
The overture failed: “The village did not sign the memorandum of understanding.”
A major source of the breakdown appears to have been a showdown over the protection of archeological sites.
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There were half a dozen of those spread around the village. So “it should not have been a surprise when early recovery work triggered permitting and consultation requirements under the Heritage Conservation Act,” says the auditor general.
Those became a flashpoint in the relationship as the rebuilding effort dragged on.
“Many residents were unwilling to accept that the archeological work was required under provincial legislation,” says the auditor general.
“Village residents were upset by the duration and cost of archeological work. People associated with the village questioned whether the tribal council’s ownership of the archeology company presented a conflict of interest.
“Media coverage of delays frequently focused on archeology work. Employees of the archeology company experienced hostility and racism while working in the village.”
Indigenous representatives complained to the auditor general’s office that “they were left alone to justify the protection of archeology sites despite provincially legislated requirements.”
Tensions came to a head in October 2023 when “residents held a demonstration over archeology requirements.”
The premier’s office then intervened, sending a senior staff member to Lytton to hear concerns. Later, the provincial archeology branch dispatched its own staff to assist in sifting sites for artifacts.
The province also provided funding to help property owners cover the tens of thousands of dollars in costs for archeological assessments.
But when a new working group was established in 2024 to oversee the technical aspects of the archeological assessments, “it did not include representatives from the village.”
The tribal council told the auditor general “it was frustrated that the province did not compel the village to work with them on all aspects of recovery.” Indigenous leaders described the lapse as “a missed opportunity to advance reconciliation in the region.”
The auditor general, as noted, generally agrees with the Indigenous representatives about the missed opportunity.
Parrish closes her report with a statement from the tribal council. It acknowledged her efforts to understand the Nlaka’pamux perspective while lamenting the constraints that prevented her from examining whether senior governments had lived up to the commitments made in July 2021.
“The commitment letters had the opportunity to be transformative — to have built back better for everyone and to have moved all involved towards a new way of coexisting,” wrote the council.
“The scope of the auditor general’s examination, being focused on the village of Lytton, reflects an acceptance of colonial constructs rather than a reflection of Nlaka’pamux ways.”
Not long after the destruction of Lytton, then premier John Horgan committed the province to rebuild it as “a community of the future, a town of tomorrow.”
The disappointing results on display in the auditor general’s report — a combination of red tape, political recriminations and unrealistic expectations — is not the future Horgan imagined.
But it appears to be the one we’re getting, and not just in Lytton.
vpalmer@postmedia.com
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