By Rachel Graham of RNZ

A public memorial service will be held in Christchurch today to mark the 15th anniversary of the 2011 February earthquake.

The magnitude 6.3 quake on February 22 left 185 people dead, while thousands of homes were demolished because of damage to the buildings or land.

The service will be held at the Canterbury National Earthquake Memorial at the corner of Cambridge Terrace and Montreal St in central Christchurch.

A minute’s silence will be held at 12.51pm, the time the earthquake hit, then the names of the 185 people who died will be read aloud while the HMNZS Canterbury bell tolls.

Christchurch City Council spokesman Duncan Sandeman said deputy Mayor Victoria Henstock would lay a wreath at the memorial wall on behalf of the people of Christchurch, while members of the public were invited to lay floral tributes after the ceremony.

“We welcome all members of the community who wish to attend to join and reflect on the impact the destructive earthquakes had on our district and remember those lives that were lost,” he said.

Fifteen years on, much of the land cleared of houses, known as the red zone, is now parkland.

An 11km cycle and walking path called the City to Sea Pathway winds through some of the red zone land from New Brighton to the central city.

The Anglican Christ Church Cathedral, for many years the symbol of Christchurch, was badly damaged in the February earthquake and is still fenced off in Cathedral Square.

Work was done to stabilise and strengthen the building but work stopped in August 2024 because of a budget shortfall of around $85 million.

The Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Limited’s (CCRL) current plan is to reopen the cathedral in stages, with the first stage including the tower, nave and western wall which features the rose window.

The plan would allow seating for about 700 people.

The cathedral has occasionally opened for events and tours, with visitors donning hard hats and high-vis vests to venture inside.

Under the new staged-plan the CCRL hopes the cathedral can completely reopen by 2030.

For those who lost loved ones in the collapse of the Canterbury Television (CTV) building during the earthquake, this anniversary is also a reminder of what they say was “a preventable disaster and of a justice system that has yet to reflect that truth”.

A total of 115 people were killed when the six-storey building collapsed – a building that was later found to have significant deficiencies to its design.

However, in 2017 police confirmed they would not prosecute those believed to be responsible, despite uncovering negligence.

CTV Families Group spokesperson Maan Alkaisi, whose wife was killed in the collapse, said the ongoing lack of legal accountability revealed deep flaws within the justice system.

“For the CTV families, the absence of prosecutions is not a legal endpoint. It is a continuing wound that raises hard questions about whose lives are protected by the law, and how far institutions are willing, or able, to go to match public expectations of justice.”

He said he would be inviting Attorney-General Judith Collins to meet with him in Christchurch to explain why police reversed their original intent to prosecute those who had been found negligent.

“This request is not an attempt to politicise the issue. It is an attempt to restore confidence in a system that appears to have failed 115 New Zealanders and their families.”

The CTV collapse was not unavoidable, but rather a preventable disaster, he said.

“Fifteen years on, our resolve has not diminished. What has changed is the narrative. It has evolved from ‘still no justice, still no accountability, still no closure’, to a new, determined stance: ‘the story does not finish here’.”

- RNZ