Ross and Judith Urquhart have called Lytton, B.C., home for half a century, leaving only for as long it took to rebuild after a raging wildfire forced them to flee in 2021.
“All the homes around us were burning and we had to just jump in the vehicle and get out,” Ross Urquhart recalled, nearly five years after the disaster.
The blaze killed two people and destroyed 90 per cent of the village, scattering its couple hundred residents “to the winds,” Judith Urquhart said.
The Urquharts, now in their 70s, missed their close-knit community and were among the first residents to rebuild, moving back about 18 months ago.
But now they and others, including the former mayor and a current village councillor, fear Lytton is heading for another disaster, even as recovery funding pours in.
They worry it faces bankruptcy from the costs of maintaining more than $50 million in planned infrastructure that is being funded mostly by higher levels of government, saying the facilities will be overbuilt for the village that is currently home to about 75 residents and still lacks amenities as basic as a grocery store.
The projects include a community hub with an adjoining six-lane swimming pool to be built with nearly $26 million from the federal government. Ottawa has committed another $23 million for a firehall and emergency operations centre.
The councillor, former mayor, and the Urquharts said there were no clear answers to how much it will cost to run the planned facilities and how exactly the village will pay for their operations.
Lytton’s chief financial and administrative officer — who lives in Halifax — was meanwhile paid nearly $574,000 over two years in 2023 and 2024, compensation in line with top city staff in communities such as Victoria.
The Urquharts welcome the idea of new amenities. “The village council, they want to have nice things for our community. Who doesn’t, right?” Judith Urquhart said.
“What we’re saying is, could you talk with us to say, how is all of this going to work? I want to see the big picture.”
Lytton was very small even before it was razed by the fire on June 30, 2021, a day after the temperature in the village hit 49.6 degrees, the hottest ever recorded in Canada. The census that May found there were 210 residents in 104 private homes, the population having declined 15 per cent compared with five years earlier.
However, it did act as a service hub for residents of the surrounding area, with its bank, health centre, post office and store.
Village officials are now banking on covering their expenses with a combination of hiking property taxes and attracting more homeowners and businesses to pay for them, along with revenue from rental units, leases and user fees.
Jan Polderman, who was mayor of Lytton when the wildfire roared in, said he has yet to see a clear plan for how the village will pay its way when it “couldn’t even pay the wages” of its handful of staff before the fire without the help of provincial grants.
Polderman has been knocking on doors, gathering signatures for a petition asking the village council to release asset management plans for the new facilities, which also include a two-storey $4.5-million municipal office.
“I’ve done about 15 of the 60 houses,” he said. “So far, 14 out of the 15 people have signed the petition.”
Polderman said there have been some opportunities for village residents to learn about the rebuilding plans, with officials showing “segments of the picture.”
But it hasn’t been the full picture, he said.
“That’s why I’m asking for the asset management plan, all of them, put together,” he said. “Let’s see what it’s going to cost.”
Polderman said it appears the village council is taking a “leap of faith.”
‘IT WILL BANKRUPT US’
Lytton’s communications adviser said neither Mayor Denise O’Connor nor chief financial and administrative officer Diane Mombourquette were available for interviews about the community’s finances and rebuilding process.
The village instead provided responses to questions over email, saying Lytton’s financial concerns are “not new” and costs are high for every small municipality.
“The financial viability of the village was a concern before the fire,” the email said.
Staff have been “recommending tax increases, like most communities, to manage a historic shortfall and ensure adequate contributions to reserves,” it said.
The village did not provide an estimate of running costs for the new facilities. “It is hard to understand the operational costs, when things like heating/cooling systems, usage, and programming for some buildings have not yet been determined,” it said.
The village’s proposed budget for 2026 includes a 14 per cent jump in the residential property tax rate, while its draft five-year financial plan is projecting property tax revenues more than doubling to nearly $870,000 in 2030, up from about $400,000 last year.
Property taxes are “still relatively low compared with other communities,” the response from the village said. The bylaw establishing the 2025 rate shows the residential rate was $2.6298 per $1,000 of value, rising to about $3 in 2026.
Ross Urquhart said Lytton is a community of “everyday” working people.
“We don’t want to scare people away who don’t have the money,” he said, referring to expected tax increases.
At a recent council meeting, Mombourquette said the village had “healthy reserves” that may be used to balance budgets.
But she has also said Lytton is in “this very awkward place where we have all of the costs of running a municipality … but we haven’t got the rebuild back in the village.”
Mombourquette told council “it’s still a significant amount of rebuilding that we need to see in order to cover all of the costs of the village.”
Under the tax rate proposed for this year, she said “it would still take another 30 homes in order to close the gap” to pay for the village’s operating costs.
The response from the village said it “still has a long way to go” in discussions about the planned buildings, both internally and with partners, and it would forecast staffing and operations budgets based on those talks.
But it said future operations would be funded through property tax revenue, contributions from the village’s reserves and grants when they’re available, along with user fees and revenue from renting out commercial and residential units.
“Before the 2021 fire, the village had a limited tax base,” it noted in a separate public document. “The operations and maintenance of the community hub are intended to be cost-neutral, which means generating adequate revenues to cover costs.”
Since the wildfire, the British Columbia and federal governments have together committed more than $138 million to support Lytton’s recovery, with additional money flowing through disaster financial assistance and other programs.
The province has earmarked about $61.6 million, while Ottawa has pledged more than $77 million, with the bulk of the federal money going to public buildings.
Those include the planned community hub that is set to feature a marketplace and recreation area, multi-purpose rooms and space for the village’s museum, along with residential units on the second floor. There is also a plan for an adjoining pool.
Ottawa is contributing $25.9 million for the hub, while the village is meant to pay just over $400,000, according to a federal Housing Ministry news release. Another $23 million is going to the new firehall and emergency operations centre.
Jennifer Thoss, a member of Lytton’s council elected in 2022, said the village can account for its recovery spending “down to the penny.”
But she worries a lack of leadership and oversight by the provincial and federal governments has set Lytton on a path to financial ruin.
B.C. and Ottawa have a responsibility to ensure that spending taxpayers’ money to fund the recovery doesn’t result in Lytton’s bankruptcy, she said.
“In my opinion, the oversight has been at best lacking, at worst, criminal, because it will bankrupt us,” she said.
Thoss said Lytton had been struggling before the fire with an operating budget of about $1.4 million, and she was concerned the village had approved buildings that exceed its needs without determining operating costs or how to cover them.
Rebuilding a pool for the community is important so residents can learn how to swim and seek relief from sweltering heat in the summer, she said.
“Does it need to be six lanes and 25 metres adjacent to a 15,000-square foot (recreation) centre? Absolutely not,” she said.
Thoss cast the lone opposing vote as her council colleagues approved the schematic design for the community hub in February.
She had also asked the council to consider revising the design for the municipal office, saying the two-storey building with an elevator would be “overbuilt” for the village, but her motion wasn’t carried and a contractor has since been approved.
The response from the village said the hub would include spaces that can be rented out for events, while 10 apartments would bring in rental income. The pool would be paid for by property taxes, user fees and other funding sources, it said.
There are presently no major industrial or commercial properties in Lytton, so “more of the financial burden falls to homeowners,” but adding businesses would decrease the burden on residential taxpayers in future, the response said.
Facilities such as the community hub and pool provide opportunities that make the community “more attractive to live and invest in,” the email said.
Thoss acknowledged there’s some validity to the argument that amenities could attract new residents and businesses and boost the tax base.
But “if their tax rates are super inconsistent, volatile and not even covering the basic sewer and election expenses, any savvy investor would be reluctant,” she said.
The Urquharts said they doubt many more former residents of Lytton will return. Many are of retirement age or older and face what Judith Urquhart described as a “horrendous” insurance process.
“They’re sold. Their lots are gone,” she said. “Or they’re older, they’re just holding on to their lots here. They’ve gone to Ashcroft or whatever because they’re in their late 80s and they can’t go through what we went through to do the insurance.”
The 2021 census shows 100 of 210 people in the village at the time were 60 or older, and around 30 more would be at least 60 today.
Polderman said most people now living in Lytton are getting into their retirement years, and the village’s efforts to attract new residents may be hampered by a lack of jobs.
“This whole idea that we’re going to build facilities, you know, when people can’t earn a living here is sort of, you know, unrealistic.”
‘POSITIVITY ISN’T GOING TO PAY THE BILLS’
Thoss said the roster of post-wildfire recovery staff slated to continue working until the end of this year will be “long gone” once the planned buildings are complete.
They include Mombourquette, whose LinkedIn profile indicates she started working as the village’s chief financial and administrative officer in February 2023. She was previously a vice-president of the Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation, and was chief administrative officer of the town of Wolfville, N.S., more than a decade ago.
The village’s statement of financial information for 2024 shows Mombourquette’s remuneration as an employee was $201,915 plus about $5,400 in expenses. She is separately listed as receiving nearly $63,000 for services for that fiscal year.
The 2023 statement does not list Mombourquette as an employee with a salary over $75,000, but it shows she received payments for services totalling $309,024.
A staffing transition plan posted on the village’s website notes CAOs in small towns typically make between $100,000 and $150,000 annually.
O’Connor, the mayor, was meanwhile paid just over $10,000 in 2024, with about $4,600 in expenses, while the four councillors were paid about $6,840 plus expenses.
The response from the village said it would not publicly discuss confidential personnel or contract matters.
“The village has been fortunate to have the level of expertise and skill of (Mombourquette) and the team who have been assembled to support the village’s recovery and rebuilding,” the email said.
The complexity of Lytton’s “corporate recovery,” including replacing bylaws, policies, records and IT systems destroyed by the fire, along with infrastructure projects, has demanded a higher level of expertise than the village would normally require, it said.
The rebuild of the village has been slow.
B.C.’s auditor general recently released the findings from its review of provincial support for Lytton’s recovery, saying a private firm that examined the village’s use of provincial funds concluded local officials were acting in good faith, but lacked the capacity to manage the complex contracts required for recovery work.
Despite the scale of the planned community infrastructure, its construction hasn’t started yet, and the village still appears “very empty,” Ross Urquhart said.
“None of our businesses have come back, basically,” he said.
That includes the local grocery store. The couple drives an hour or more to shop in Ashcroft, Lillooet, Merritt and other communities.
He said some members of the village council have told him he and his wife should have a “positive outlook” on the planned amenities.
“I mean, positivity isn’t going to pay the bills, unfortunately,” he said. “I’m a bit of a pragmatist.”
Judith Urquhart said she tries to “support the mayor and council by being a watchdog,” asking questions and showing “that we care out here” about decisions they are making for Lytton’s future.
“We missed our community so much when we had to leave in 2021. We lost our community. We want a community back,” she said.
“And to do that, we have to be financially together here.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2026.
Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press
