MLA raises buyouts as option for post-landslide future of Old Fort, B.C.

FORT ST. JOHN — The B.C. legislator representing Old Fort, the community where a landslide has forced people from their homes, says he’ll be meeting constituents to discuss options for the future — including potentially asking the province to buy their properties.

Jordan Kealy said Thursday that he’ll be holding a town-hall meeting in Fort St. John, near Old Fort in northeast B.C., where a landslide moved the only road in and out by more than 100 metres, forcing an evacuation order on April 20.

“There’s different options, but I think right now, the option of them being left out of their homes and having to stay in hotels or other places, I think that’s unacceptable,” Kealy said.

This is the third landslide to hit Old Fort and its approximately 150 residents since 2018, and Kealy said he needs to understand how community members want to proceed.

The latest update from the province said the slide, which covers about 400 metres, has shifted the road 104 metres downslope and that new ground cracking has been observed near the top.

The update posted Wednesday said slide material had accumulated above the road, which could mean “future acceleration.”

It said that as of Wednesday, monitoring estimated the speed of the movement at 12 to 24 centimetres per hour and that conditions meant “it is not safe to reopen the road at this time.”

Kealy, who sits as an independent MLA for Peace River North, said one option could be a new road, which would likely come with a hefty price tag, or the government could buy out residents.

“Right now, (residents are) in a very difficult scenario that they can’t sell their homes very easily at all, just because of the history of the area,” he said.

“And the government isn’t putting in proactive measures to fix the hillside and the road to make it so that it’s a viable place for people to want to invest into, to buy a home.”

A 2021 government report on alternative routes into Old Fort, completed following the second slide in 2020, concluded that the best option at the time was to continue using the existing road while conducting further geotechnical assessments.

The 85-page report includes cost estimates for various options ranging from $30 million over 25 years if the government maintains the current road up to $243 million depending on the choice of new route.

The latest update from the province said there was no timeline for when the landslide might stabilize, but noted that the 2020 slide took about two weeks to slow enough to allow reconstruction to begin.

— By Ashley Joannou in Vancouver

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2026