Thousands of years of history vs. 100: Fate of Vancouver heritage building at redevelopment site undecided

The fate of a 110-year-old building hangs in the balance as the quest to find a new home and fund the move becomes seemingly harder to achieve.

The Fairmont building, which currently sits on the Heather Lands, is slated for redevelopment for a historic Indigenous-led project.

Driven by the MST Nations – which is made up of of xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) — and Canada Lands Company (CLC), the project will primarily be a residential community surrounded by a park network, and boasts of a cultural centre and plaza.

The cultural centre will take over the current site Fairmont building and the MST wantd to construct a new building.

“The intention of this development is to properly reflect the history of the host nations, and it's going to be incorporated into our cultural centre, which gives that rich history of thousands of years old, not the colonial history, just to really put emphasis on economic reconciliation,” said Dennis Thomas, councillor səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) and cultural liaison for MST projects.

The Fairmont building was initially built as an all-boys school but  the First World War, it became a military hospital. Then in the 1920s, the RCMP took over the building as both the Fairmont Barracks and the Fairmont Training Academy.

“It's just an important building in a colonial context, right? So 100-and-something years old, but when you look at the host nations, our history is 1000s of years,” Thomas said.

MIchael Kluckner with the Vancouver Historical Society said he would like to see the building saved but believes it likely won’t happen.

“I would argue that the demolition of any reusable building at the beginning of a climate crisis that we're in is not an advisable thing to do. The possibility of reusing it, I think, has been broached to the three First Nations and they would rather have it removed and and under you know, our current climate that's very much their decision to make,” he said.

In a last-ditch effort, Peter German, former RCMP duty commissioner, wrote a letter in an effort to save the building.

He believes there is a way to move forward with reconciliation while honouring the history of the Fairmont building.

“The building itself was not created by the RCMP in the first place. It pre-existed the RCMP, so it's really a heritage building that I believe is worth saving and becoming a focal point for reconciliation,” German told CTV News. “Keep in mind the RCMP was not the provincial police force here until 1950. It was the BC Provincial Police and the involvement of the RCMP in indigenous matters was very limited in this province prior to 1950.”

He said there is also a concern that an RCMP member is buried beneath the flagpole and it’s possible there may be other members buried on the site as it was commonplace that their final resting grounds be by their posts.

That argument was a source of contention at the latest public hearing in which Squamish Nation Coun. Syexwáliya Ann Whonnock said no considerations were given to her family members who needed to exhume and move their ancestors’ remains twice.

The MST had expressed if someone was willing to pay to move it, the three First Nations would be willing to support that.

City staff looked into the feasibility of saving the building and found it would cost upwards of $47 million to move and upgrade the more-than-a-century-old building, and instead, recommended that it be torn down.

According to the city, the replacement of the Fairmont building with the new cultural centre is scheduled for the final phase of the project.