What do the following authors have in common: J.D. Salinger, Emily Brontë, and Oscar Wilde? They are famous for writing just one novel.

J.D. Salinger? The Catcher in the Rye. Emily Brontë? Wuthering Heights. And Oscar Wilde? The Picture of Dorian Gray. Home runs. Classics. Enduring favourites. Lasting fame. Millions of copies sold around the planet. But in each case, there were no follow-ups. They were all one and done.

J.D. Salinger became a recluse. Emily Brontë died shortly after the publication of Wuthering Heights. And Oscar Wilde stayed with writing plays. As novelists go, they are all one-hit wonders.

When it comes to music, one-hit wonders are an endless source of amusement. How can someone become internationally famous for decades when they only have one song that anyone cares about?

These are special cases where lightning is captured exactly once. And no matter how many more songs these artists wrote, they would never, ever achieve that extreme level of fame again. A single song overshadows every other effort.

Let’s apply this to the history of alt-rock. What songs and artists qualify?

It took a bunch of research, but I think I managed to crack it using a combination of statistics. And we’re now up to episode four of five in this mission: the 50 all-time biggest alt-rock one-hit wonders.

Songs heard on this show:

• Doctor and the Medics, Spirit in the Sky
• Enigma, Sadeness (Part 1)
• Edwyn Collins, A Girl Like You
• Peter Schilling, Major Tom (Coming Home)
• White Town, Your Woman
• Meredith Brooks, Bitch
• Marcy Playground, Sex and Candy
• The Caesars, Jerk It Out
• Chumbawamba, Tubthumping
• The La’s, There She Goes

Here’s Eric Wilhite’s playlist.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on these stations.

• 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7pm
• Q107/Toronto – Sunday night at 9pm
• Live 88-5/Ottawa – Saturdays at 9am and Sundays at 6pm.
• 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday nights at 11pm
• FM96/London – Sunday nights at 8pm
• Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday nights at 10am and 10pm
• 107-3 The Edge/Calgary – Sundays at 10am and 10pm
• Sonic 102.9/Edmonton – Sunday at 8am and 8pm
• The Zone/Victoria – Sunday at 9am and 9pm
• The Fox/Vancouver – Sundays at 10anm and 10pm
• The Goat Network/Interior BC
• Surge 105/Halifax – Sunday at 7pm
• WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown – Mon-Fri at 9pm

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Have you ever noticed that Dave Grohl always seems to be chewing gum? On stage, in interviews, during his time with Nirvana and especially now with the Foo Fighters, Dave always seems to be chomping away. As it turns out, there’s a quasi-medical reasoning to Grohl’s gum appreciation.

He says it keeps his mouth and throat lubricated, which makes shouting and singing much easier. And the flavour of choice? Dentyne Ice, to keep Grohl’s microphone minty-fresh.

But the habit has its drawbacks, too. At a Foo Fighters gig in 1997, Dave’s screaming sent sweet saliva flying all over his equipment. The microphone kept working just fine, but it had made a new friend. A hungry honeybee was drawn in by the sugary spittle and attacked Dave every time he leaned in to sing.

© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Police in Virginia say Justin Fairfax, the state’s former lieutenant governor, shot and killed his wife and then fatally shot himself.

Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said Thursday that both were found dead at their northern Virginia home after the couple’s teenage son called 911 shortly after midnight.

The police chief said the couple was going through a divorce.

Davis said his officers responded to the home in January after Justin Fairfax alleged his wife had assaulted him.

“There are several cameras set up inside the house. Apparently. Mrs. Fairfax, at some point during these divorce proceedings, set up a lot of cameras inside the home. We reviewed those cameras, and we corroborated that the alleged assault never occurred. So, there was no arrest made.”

—

— This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

The director of Camp Mystic, the Texas camp where 27 children and counsellors died during flash flooding last July, testified on Monday that he was unaware of official flood alerts from the day before the storm hit as parents of victims fight to preserve evidence and halt the reopening of the camp this summer.

Over hours of testimony at a Travis County, Texas, court hearing attended by families of campers who were killed, Edward Eastland provided a detailed description of how staff responded as the banks of the Guadalupe River rose, trapping children and counsellors in their cabins and washing them away.

“I wish we had never had camp that summer,” Eastland — whose family has owned the camp since the 1980s — said, before acknowledging that lives could have been saved if staff had taken action sooner or the camp had an established emergency evacuation plan, but insisted they could not have anticipated the severity of the storm.

He also acknowledged that more campers and his father, Richard Eastland, who died while trying to evacuate children under his care, would have survived if he and the camp operator had made quicker decisions to evacuate the girls.

By the time they did, at around 3 a.m., the waters were so high and so fast that rapids had begun to swirl around some cabins, he said.

The night of the flooding, Eastland said he went to bed at about 11 p.m. and slept through several emergency alerts, including a CodeRED text at about 1:15 a.m. warning of a flood event that could last several hours.

His father called him on a walkie-talkie shortly before 2 a.m., alerting him to heavy rain and the need to move canoes and water equipment off the riverfront. They did not move to evacuate cabins at that point.

Eastland also admitted that counsellors failed to employ basic safety measures, such as using loudspeakers to alert campers to the impending storm and direct them to take refuge on higher ground.

The hearing comes amid a lawsuit brought by a victim’s family against the camp’s owners over their decision to reopen this summer, despite parents’ wishes to preserve the site’s surviving infrastructure as evidence.

CiCi Steward, the mother of nine-year-old Cecile Steward, a camper whose body was never found, said during Monday’s hearing that state authorities should deny the camp’s request to reopen this summer.

Cecile’s parents, Will and CiCi, sued the Eastland family in February over their handling of the flooding and its move to reopen.

The camp plans to welcome children back under its care in less than two months and has appealed to state regulators for permission to house campers on elevated ground that did not flood.

Nearly 900 girls are expected to attend, according to its operators.

“It is so clear they are incapable of keeping children safe,” CiCi Steward said.

On Wednesday, the camp’s security officer, Glenn Juenke, told the courtroom at the end of the three-day hearing that an early evacuation order could have saved lives, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Juenke, who helped move some campers into a two-storey building and saved another group of girls by telling them to run to higher ground before he himself became trapped in a cabin, said it was his decision to evacuate the girls and that he did not receive orders from camp operators.

No emergency evacuation training was provided to him or the girls, he testified.

Lawyers for families of victims introduced a signed statement from a camp counsellor who described the night’s events. She recalled waking up during the storm and seeing girls running for shelter.

“The water was rising faster than anything I have ever witnessed,” the counsellor wrote.

She said Edward Eastland eventually approached the cabin in knee-deep water, told her it was too late to leave and they should ride out the storm there.

The counsellor said she tried to keep the children out of the rising water pouring in before she was eventually swept away herself.

The flooding killed at least 136 people.

Texas health regulators said last week that they are investigating hundreds of complaints filed against Camp Mystic’s owners.

The Texas Rangers are also investigating allegations of neglect, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

— With files from The Associated Press

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and his NASA crewmates are set to take part in a news conference on Thursday after the historic Artemis II lunar mission.

The four-person crew — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Hansen — splashed down in the Pacific Ocean last Friday.

The 10-day flight saw astronauts travel to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, setting a record for the greatest distance travelled by humans away from Earth.

The astronauts underwent initial medical checks aboard the ship that recovered them off the San Diego coast before they were flown to Houston, where they were greeted with a jubilant homecoming at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control.

NASA said the crew has since been undergoing standard postflight reconditioning, evaluations and lunar science debriefings.

Thursday’s news conference — the first since their return to Earth — is scheduled to take place at 2:30 p.m. Eastern at the Houston space centre.

Hansen, a 50-year-old from London, Ont., also made history during the mission as the first non-American to travel beyond low Earth orbit. He was also the first person to speak French while en route to the moon.

In a message broadcast just before liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, Hansen said, “We are going for all humanity.”

Hansen and his crewmates spoke with Prime Minister Mark Carney while in space. Carney called the mission “hugely inspiring” and said Canadians couldn’t be more proud of Hansen and the collaboration with the United States.

The four astronauts were watched around the world and praised for the friendship and love for each other they displayed during the mission. In an emotional moment, the crew asked that a lunar crater be named after Wiseman’s late wife Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020.

Unlike the Apollo program, which sent men to the moon from 1968 through 1972, the Artemis program is setting the stage for a more permanent human lunar presence and is laying the groundwork to send astronauts to Mars.

NASA said in a news release the Artemis II crew achieved the mission’s primary objectives: testing its life support systems; manually piloting the Orion spacecraft; performing manoeuvres to propel Orion to the Moon and adjust its course; conducting a lunar flyby with unprecedented views of the Moon’s far side; and completing a safe re-entry and recovery.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Russia hammered civilian areas of Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in an attack that stretched for hours from daytime into the night, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 100 others as terrified residents cowered in their homes, officials said Thursday.

Russia launched nearly 700 drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles, primarily targeting civilians, in its biggest aerial barrage in almost two weeks, authorities said.

Tetiana Sokol, a 54-year-old resident of Kyiv, said two missiles hit near her home and she took cover with her dog in the hallway as flashes lit up the night and windows shattered from the blast wave.

“On the third attack everything broke, everything flew, we were shocked, we didn’t know where to run. I grabbed whatever came to hand and ran away with the dog,” she told The Associated Press. “I still can’t find the cats in the house, they climbed out somewhere, I don’t even know. No windows, nothing, the dog is still walking around in stress.”

Moscow’s forces have hit civilian areas almost daily since its all-out invasion of its neighbor more than four years ago, with the regular assaults occasionally punctuated by massive attacks. More than 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have died in the strikes, the United Nations says.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the operation was launched “in retaliation” for Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia, where long-range drones and missiles have hit Russian oil refineries and war-related ma

European Council President António Costa described it as “yet another horrendous attack” while people slept in their homes.

The latest bombardment came in the wake of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 48-hour trip this week to Germany, Norway and Italy in an urgent search for more air defense systems that can stop Russian missiles.

Ukraine has developed a significant domestic arms industry, especially in the production of drones and missiles, but it can’t yet match the sophistication of U.S. Patriot air defense systems. Ukraine’s top diplomatic priority is securing allies’ help to buy and build more and better air defenses, Zelenskyy said this week.

Cash-strapped Ukraine also needs the speedy disbursement of a promised loan from the European Union of 90 billion euros ($106 billion) that has been blocked by Hungary.

 

Cash-strapped Ukraine also needs the speedy disbursement of a promised loan from the European Union of 90 billion euros ($106 billion) that has been blocked by Hungary.

Ukraine fears the Iran war is burning through stockpiles of the advanced American-made systems it needs, and has argued against a U.S. temporary waiver on Russian oil sanctions that Kyiv says is helping finance the Kremlin’s war effort.

“Another night has proven that Russia does not deserve any easing of global policy or lifting of sanctions,” Zelenskyy said on X.

He thanked Germany, Norway and Italy for new agreements this week on supporting Ukraine’s air defense. Officials are also working with the Netherlands on additional supplies, he said.

At the same time, he noted that some partner countries haven’t followed through on pledges of military support.

“I have instructed the Commander of the Air Force to contact those partners who earlier committed to providing missiles for Patriot and other systems,” Zelenskyy said.

The bombardment was the biggest in weeks. Last month, Russia fired 948 drones and 34 missiles in the space of 24 hours in the largest assault of the war on civilian areas.

At least four people were killed overnight in Kyiv, including a 12-year-old, with more than 50 others injured, according to authorities. Officials said the attack damaged 17 apartment buildings, 10 private homes, as well as a hotel, office center, car dealership, gas station and a shopping mall in the capital.

Nine people were killed and 23 injured in the southern port city of Odesa, three women were killed and around three dozen injured in the central Dnipro region, and one person was killed in Zaporizhzhia in the south.

“Such attacks cannot be normalized. These are war crimes that must be stopped and their perpetrators held to account,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X.

Ukraine’s air force said air defenses shot down or disabled 667 out of 703 incoming targets, including 636 Shahed-type drones and other uncrewed aerial vehicles.

It said 20 strike drones and 12 missiles hit 26 locations.

Meanwhile in Russia, Krasnodar regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev reported that a 14-year-old girl and a woman were killed in Ukrainian strikes in the Black Sea port of Tuapse.

He said that attacks damaged six apartment buildings, 24 private houses and three schools. Drone fragments also fell near Tuapse.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its air defenses downed 207 Ukrainian drones overnight.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

A 24-year-old man wanted in connection with a fatal triple shooting at an Ontario college earlier this month may be “attempting to alter” his appearance and clothing, police in Sarnia, Ont., say.

Investigators released a new photo of London, Ont., resident Kyaw Doe on Wednesday, alleging he is on the run following the April 10 incident that claimed the life of 20-year-old Dane Nisbet. Two others suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

“A ‘Canada Wide Warrant’ has now been issued for the arrest of Kyaw ‘Chin’ Doe,” police said in a news release.

“This means that the Sarnia Police Service will retrieve him from any location he may be found within Canada.”

At 12:52 a.m. last Friday, police were called to the college bar for reports of the shooting.

Det.-Sgt. Kent Jamieson told Global News on Monday that four people – two men and two women – drove away from the scene in a Toyota Prius. One of the women was let out of the car, which made its way to London.

On Saturday, police executed search warrants at two London homes. Officers recovered the vehicle and arrested one suspect.

Oudom Bun, 23, of London, was charged with second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Doe is police’s prime suspect. At the time of the shooting, he was subject to a court order prohibiting him from possessing firearms.

He is wanted on charges of second-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and possession of a firearm while prohibited. Investigators believe Doe, whom they allege has ties to criminal networks in western and northern Ontario, has left the Sarnia area and is in hiding.

Earlier in the night, he and the group he was with were at two other establishments.

“We believe that Doe was causing issues or creating confrontation at each of those establishments. However, we do not believe he had any prior contact with the involved victims,” Jamieson said.

“Even if they were at any of those bars earlier, this was not something that had boiled over from another location, but an event that began and ended at Lambton with respect to the confrontation between those four and the victims.”

To find Doe, officers executed search warrants at a home in Sarnia and at a hotel unit in nearby Point Edward on Sunday.

During the search warrant, police arrested a woman who was one of two females with the suspects the night of the shooting.

When they raided the hotel unit, officers found what they believe was the weapon used in the shooting – a Glock 45 acquired outside Canada, Jamieson said. A man who was in the unit was also arrested.

Ava-Leigh Lightheart and Johnathan Osborne-Walsh, both 19, are each facing multiple charges, including being an accessory after the fact to murder.

There is “no evidence of any culpability” regarding the woman who was let out of the car, Jamieson said, adding that she is now a witness.

Jamieson said every Ontario police force, as well as border agencies, has been alerted to be on the lookout for Doe.

Police said Wednesday the new photo of Doe was taken in March.

“It’s in your best interest to contact a lawyer and make arrangements to surrender yourself immediately to police,” Jamieson said Monday.

“You will be found, you will be arrested, and you will be brought to justice.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Europe has “maybe six weeks or so (of) jet fuel left,” the head of the International Energy Agency said Thursday in a wide-ranging Associated Press interview, warning of possible flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies remain blocked by the Iran war.

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol painted a sobering picture of the global repercussions of what he called “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced,” stemming from the pinch-off of oil, gas and other vital supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.

“In the past there was a group called ‘Dire Straits.’ It’s a dire strait now, and it is going to have major implications for the global economy. And the longer it goes, the worse it will be for the economic growth and inflation around the world,” he said.

The impact will be “higher petrol (gasoline) prices, higher gas prices, high electricity prices,” Birol told the AP, speaking in his Paris office looking out over the Eiffel Tower.

Economic pain will be felt unevenly and “the countries who will suffer the most will not be those whose voice are heard a lot. It will be mainly the developing countries. Poorer countries in Asia, in Africa and in Latin America,” said the Turkish economist and energy expert who has led the IEA since 2015.

But without a settlement of the Iran war that permanently reopens the Strait of Hormuz, “Everybody is going to suffer,” he added.

“Some countries may be richer than the others. Some countries may have more energy than the others, but no country, no country is immune to this crisis,” he said.

Without a reopening of the waterway, some oil products may dry up, he warned.

In Europe, “I can tell you soon we will hear the news that some of the flights from city A to city B might be canceled as a result of lack of jet fuel,” he said.

Birol spoke out against the so-called “toll booth” system that Iran has applied to some ships, letting them travel through the strait for a fee. He said allowing that to become more permanent would run the risk of setting a precedent that could then be applied to other waterways, including the vital Malacca Strait in Asia.

“If we change it once, it may be difficult to get it back,” he said. “It will be difficult to have a toll system here, applied here, but not there.”

“I would like to see that the oil flows unconditionally from the point A to point B,” he said.

Birol said more than 110 oil-laden tankers and more than 15 carriers loaded with liquified natural gas are waiting in the Persian Gulf and could help ease the energy crisis if they could escape through the Strait of Hormuz.

“But it is not enough,” he added.

Even with a peace deal, strikes on energy facilities means it could be many months before pre-war production levels are restored, he said.

“Over 80 key assets in the region have been damaged. And out of these 80, more than one third are severely or very severely damaged,” he said.

“It will be extremely optimistic to believe that it will very quick,” Birol said. “It will take gradually, gradually, up to two years to come back where we were before the war.”

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Pakistan’s army chief is set to meet with Iranian officials in Tehran on Thursday in hopes of extending the ceasefire that paused almost seven weeks of war between Iran, the U.S. and Israel.

It’s unclear whether the frantic diplomacy can lead to a lasting deal as the two-week ceasefire passes the half-way mark.

The Iran war has killed thousands of people and upended global markets by disrupting the flow of oil.

The meeting comes as U.S. President Donald Trump announced the leaders of Israel and Lebanon will speak later on Thursday about halting the fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

If it takes place, the conversation would be the first time the leaders of the two countries have spoken directly in more than 30 years.

Both Israeli and Lebanese governments refused to confirm any conversation. Meanwhile, Hezbollah and Israel’s military continued cross-border attacks on Thursday.

The White House said any further talks regarding Iran would likely take place in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, though no decision had been made on whether to resume negotiations.

The fragile ceasefire, which halted the fighting a week ago, is holding despite a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and Iranian counter-threats to target regional ports across the Red Sea.

Pakistan has emerged as a key mediator after hosting direct talks between the U.S. and Iran in Islamabad that authorities said helped narrow differences between the sides.

Mediators are seeking a new round before the ceasefire expires next week.

The war has jolted markets and rattled the global economy as shipping has been cut off and airstrikes have torn through military and civilian infrastructure across the region.

Oil prices have fallen amid hopes for an end to fighting, and U.S. stocks on Wednesday surpassed records set in January.

Trump said that Israel and Lebanon are expected to speak later on Thursday about a possible ceasefire, but did not elaborate which leaders would speak.

Officials from Netanyahu’s office and the Lebanese government refused to confirm the possible conversation.

An Israeli minister said Netanyahu will speak with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday.

“Today the prime minister will speak for the first time with the president of Lebanon, after so many years of a complete disconnection in the dialogue between the two countries,” Gila Gamliel, Israel’s minister of science and technology, told Army Radio Thursday morning.

Gamliel, who was at a cabinet meeting late Wednesday night about negotiations with Lebanon, is part of Israel’s security cabinet.

She said the talks “will hopefully ultimately lead to prosperity and flourishing” between the two countries.

Lebanon and Israel held their first direct diplomatic talks in decades on Tuesday in Washington following more than a month of war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

But Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire across the border on Thursday, with Hezbollah targeting towns in northern Israel with rockets and drones.

Israeli fire against southern Lebanon intensified, especially around the cities of Tyre, Nabatieh, and the strategic town of Bint Jbeil near the border with Israel.

Israel and Lebanon have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Lebanon remains deeply divided over diplomatic engagement with Israel.

On Thursday, Aoun said Lebanon wants a ceasefire but Israeli troops must first withdraw from southern Lebanon as an “essential step” to allow the Lebanese army to deploy to the border and disarm Hezbollah.

Israeli troops pushed deeper into southern Lebanon with the aim of creating what officials have called a “security zone,” which Netanyahu has said will extend at least 8 to 10 kilometers (5 to 6 miles) into Lebanon to avoid threats from short-range rockets and anti-tank missiles.

Even as the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports and renewed Iranian threats strained the ceasefire agreement, regional officials reported progress, telling The Associated Press the United States and Iran had an “in-principle agreement” to extend it to allow for more diplomacy.

They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

But while mediators worked for peace, tensions simmered.

The commander of Iran’s joint military command, Ali Abdollahi, threatened to halt trade in the region if the U.S. does not lift its naval blockade, and a newly appointed military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said he doesn’t support extending the ceasefire.

Mediators are pushing for a compromise on three main sticking points that derailed direct talks last weekend — Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for wartime damages, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran is open to discussing the type and level of its uranium enrichment, but his country “based on its needs, must be able to continue enrichment,” Iranian state media reported.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration would ramp up economic pain on Iran with new economic sanctions on countries doing business with it, calling the move the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in Qatar on Thursday as part of a regional visit aimed at discussions on the ongoing U.S.-Iran peace process, his office said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the window of peace was opening during a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, who briefed him on the latest developments in Iran-U.S. negotiations and Tehran’s considerations on the next step, according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry.

Wang told Araghchi that the situation has reached a critical juncture between war and peace, and said Iran’s sovereignty, security and legitimate rights should be respected as a littoral state of the Strait of Hormuz, while freedom of navigation and safety through the strait should be ensured.

Since the war began, Iran has curtailed maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which a fifth of global oil transited through in peacetime.

Tehran’s effective closure of the strait sent oil prices skyrocketing, raising the cost of fuel, food and other basic goods far beyond the Middle East, and the U.S. has responded with a blockade on Iranian shipping.

U.S. Central Command said Wednesday that no ships had made it past the blockade since it was imposed two days earlier, while 10 merchant vessels complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around and reenter Iranian waters.

The blockade is intended to pressure Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil, mostly to Asia, since the war began Feb. 28.

Much of it has likely been carried by so-called dark transits that evade sanctions and oversight, providing cash that’s been vital to keeping Iran running.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

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 former mayor, a sitting councillor 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.

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.

‘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.”

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