Residential school building in northern B.C. to be replaced with new community centre

After decades of lobbying by local Indigenous leaders, aformer residential school in the remoteBritish Columbia community of Lower Post is to bedemolished andreplaced with a new community centre.

The federal and B.C. governments say construction on the new$13.5-million project is set to start in June and expected to becomplete by next year.

Deputy ChiefHarlan Schilling of the Daylu Dena Council at Lower Post, said the building which was a Roman Catholic-operated residential school from 1951 to 1975 has long been apainful reminder of a dark past.

"This torch has been the one thing that's been passed off from leader to leader:to finally remove this horrible building in the centreof the community and centreof our lives," said Schilling.

B.C. Premier John Horgan, federal Indigenous Services MinisterMarc Miller and Indigenous leaders from the area took part in the emotional news conference, which was held virtually.

Horgan says he was moved to work with the federal government toreplace the residential school building after local elders told himduring a visit that some people feared stepping inside the placewhere they suffered physical and sexual abuse.

"Elders have been fearful of this building in the middle of the territoryfor decades and decades," he said.

After the residential school closed, the building served as the Daylu Dena Council's bandoffice, a post office and employment centre for the estimated 175residents of the community, located near the B.C.-Yukon border.

Schilling says it's been devastating knowing the hurt many eldershave been holding inside over the years, but the building'sdemolition will finally bring some relief.

"This is a success for our First Nation and Canada as a whole," he said.

Murray Rankin, B.C.'s minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation, said the demolition of the old school and construction of the new community centre was an important step forward in reconciliation.

Lower Post islocated on Highway 97, the Alaska Highway, approximately 23 kilometressoutheast of Watson Lake, Yukon, near the confluence of the Dease and Liard Rivers.