The Mayor of Lytton is hopeful that shovels will hit the ground this year as they gear up to rebuild the Village following the devastating wildfire which burned down their community in June of 2021.

Denise O’Connor says crews are still working on cleaning up the village, removing debris, remediating soil as well as the continuation of archaeology.

Once that work is complete, rebuild work can begin.

“We don’t have any specific timelines. Of course, with the archaeology, they are always worried about can’t finds — finding something that will slow everything down.”

O’Connor says if all goes as planned, rebuild work should begin in March or April.

She says they are remaining optimistic that the Lytton Rebuild will begin to improve rapidly over the next 12 months.

“It only has to get better. We want to see those businesses come back, hopefully, they will. We need to get rebuilding our municipal buildings, the village office, the firehall, the public works building; that should all be taking place this year, along with homes, businesses, and services.”

However, O’Connor explains the majority of people are still on the fence about whether or not they will rebuild in Lytton.

“What are their options? What are they going to do? Where are they going to land? While others are saying ‘Yep, we’re coming back, we’re rebuilding;’ some have their house plants picked out already.”

O’Connor says it’s a bit of a Chicken and Egg battle, figuring out whether or not they need to rebuild municipal services before people decide to move back to the village.

“One of the things that we don’t have in place is a longer-term recovery plan. We’re still working from our short-term recovery plan, believe it or not.”

She adds they are in the process of hiring a Recovery Manager to manage and help plan out specifics with the rebuild process in Lytton.

A town hall meeting will be held on Thursday, January 19 which O’Connor says will be used to share information about the rebuild with Lytton residents.