Members of a number of First Nations bands gather at the Chief Joe Mathias Centre in North Vancouver to watch a live broadcast of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's formal apology on Wednesday. (CBC)

Politicians in British Columbia described the prime minister's official apology over Canada's residential schools as a first step toward healing old wounds, but some members of the First Nations in the province said it won't make up for the lives lost and destroyed.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and Opposition leader Carole James both called Stephen Harper's apology poignant and historic.

They said the apology is a starting point, not the conclusion, of the healing process for those taken away from their homes and families and forced to attend the religious-based schools.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell says he agrees with aboriginal people a formal apology is an important first step towards healing the injuries left by the residential school system. (CBC)

"We sincerely hope that healing will evolve from this apology, and that it will be a significant step toward closing a tragic chapter in Canada's history," Campbell told a gathering of First Nations at Chief Joe Mathias Centre in North Vancouver.

James, leader of the New Democratic Party, said the apology must be backed up with concrete action to address the damage to aboriginal communities caused by the residential schools system.

"I want to see the new relationship be a real document that has action, not just words on a piece of paper. That means true consultation," James said in a statement.

Survivor scorns apology

In Prince George, one residential school survivor said he won't accept Harper's apology.

Frank Joseph, now 60, said he was beaten at school for everything from speaking his native language to losing a hockey game.

"I grew up the hard way. I didn't even have a childhood," said Joseph, who was sent to Lejac Residential School in northern B.C. when he was 11.

"I was just a little kid and I started drinking because of what I went through at Lejac," he said. "That's why I say what he said is good, but personally I'll never accept it."

In Kamloops, about 150 people gathered at a downtown hotel to watch a live broadcast of Harper's apology.

David Sampson, who went to residential school in Williams Lake, said the apology won't make up for the lives lost and destroyed.

He said his people need treatment centres to continue to heal.

"It's a beginning but it's not enough," said Christine Kasamer, a member of the Kamloops Indian Band. "There have been people that have been really badly hurt. I have been badly hurt."