A report from the office of British Columbia’s auditor general says the province 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.
But it says 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, the auditor’s report released Tuesday says the B.C. government itself didn’t have a comprehensive legal framework to guide disaster recovery at the time.
It says B.C.’s legislation and policies in 2021 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, the report notes.
An interim provincial disaster recovery framework introduced in 2019 stated recovery was to be community led, the report says, adding Lytton’s recovery was the first time B.C. had put the guidance into action.
The auditor’s report also says B.C.’s Emergency Program Act was “silent” on the role of Indigenous Peoples, and the lack of collaboration between the village and Nlaka’pamux governing bodies was a “missed opportunity.”
Having no legal framework “impeded” the province’s efforts to bring them together and a partnership failed to emerge, it says, though it cites examples of Lytton First Nation and the Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council offering support to the village.
The report notes the B.C. government has since passed new emergency and disaster management legislation, including requirements for local authorities to work with Indigenous governments on emergency plans.
Premier David Eby says the new law requires conversations between local governments and First Nations to happen before a potential emergency, marking a shift from how things were done 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.
The premier says the province would respond to the auditor’s report later 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 blaze also destroyed 45 homes and several other buildings in nearby Lytton First Nation communities, the report says.
After the fire, the land was covered in debris and contaminated by soot and ash containing asbestos and heavy metals, including lead, it says.
The report says archeological work became a “significant source of tension” as residents felt it was delaying the rebuilding process.
The province “could not mitigate” those tensions, it says, despite providing funds to the village to help offset the costs.
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 says.
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 says the village had provided all required reporting.
The shift followed the government’s hiring a private firm to review the village’s use of provincial funds. It 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 says.
Prior to the fire, it says 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 says.
After the blaze, it says 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 the previous Emergency Program Act, the report says.
It says 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 says 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, the report says it had issued 33 residential and other building permits.
The report identifies 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
