A demolition company based in Alberta has filed a lawsuit against the owners of Lake Okanagan Resort, three years after the McDougall Creek wildfire ravaged the property along Westside Road.

The plaintiff, McColman & Sons Demolition of Edmonton, is seeking a lien for $248,976.64. That’s the amount the company claims it is still owed under a contract reached in 2024 for demolition, clean up and removal of fire-damaged buildings at resort. The lawsuit calls for an order for sale of the parcel of property in question if the lien amount and interest are not paid in full.

It’s the latest in a string of legal action since the fire, including the resort suing its insurance company over claims it cannot rebuild due to “gaps” in its coverage that it allegedly wasn’t told about.

All of this is unfolding as a group of former residents wait to rebuild. They haven’t been able to do so because the resort has not restored vital utilities like power and water. The residents want the province to step in.

“The Emergency Disaster Management Act, EDMA, that was passed three months after the McDougall Creek wildfire. There’s four phases to that act, and the fourth phase is recovery. And it says right in that act that the purpose of the recovery phase is to restore the health, well being, safety, property and essential services of those affected by this wildfire,” said Heather Ormiston, a member of one of the several strata councils who owned property or buildings at the resort.

Ormiston argues that while multiple provincial ministries have advised that existing legislation does not provide a mechanism to compel restoration, or provide recovery assistance, the government should intervene to ensure that private water utilities operated under provincial licensing and oversight are restored.

“It may be that this specific circumstance was not contemplated when British Columbia’s emergency management legislation was developed,” she added. “But identifying a gap in the framework should be the beginning of the conversation — not the end.”

Local MLA Macklin McCall has raised the issue in the legislature, but Ormiston wasn’t satisfied with the answer from Kelly Greene, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.

As for launching legal action against the resort, that’s not high on the priority list for Ormiston’s strata members.

“It’s just not something that we are considering,” she said.

“We are ready to rebuild. We have people that want to go home. This was their primary residence and we feel that the provincial government needs to step up and recognize that there is a policy gap here.”

Ormiston warns that given the frequency of wildfires in B.C., Lake Okanagan Resort residents won’t be the only community to face similar circumstances related to private utilities.