B.C.’s watershed protection plan needs more funding says Okanagan water board

The Okanagan Basin Water Board is urging the province to be bolder with its recently released Watershed Security Strategy, which it claims both over-promises and underfunds.

“We’re encouraged by the recognition about the importance of healthy watersheds to the well-being of the province, for drinking water, for the environment, and everything we cherish,” Anna Warwick Sears, water board executive director, said in a press release.

“It also seems like they’re taking a big step forward in reconciliation with First Nations and that’s all positive. Where we have the biggest questions are around the funding. They’re going to need a whole lot more.”

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As proposed, the province will kick off the new fund with a $100-million endowment, with the interest being used to pay for projects. That works out to about $5 million a year.

And while the intention is to have the initial $100 million endowment matched by the federal government and philanthropic dollars, the earnings distributed will still be a far cry from what’s required to implement a strategy of this scope, Sears said.

The water board said the initial investment of $100 million should be at least 10 times larger to have a meaningful impact.

“Regardless of where the funding comes from it needs to be at least 10 times larger, Sears said.

During the era of Forest Renewal BC, which operated during the 1994-95 to 2001-02 budget years, watershed projects received an average of about $66 million per year.

In today’s dollars that would be close to $110 million a year, Sears estimated.

“We should fund close to that level again. Watersheds are in even worse shape now, and we are even more dependent on their health,” Sears said.

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The organization also suggested four other ways that the government could better support its aims.

The first is to support local governments in delivering water management.

Next is for the province to address conflicting ministerial mandates in forestry, mining, range and recreation while identifying water quality as a top priority.

The board would also like to see water supply conflicts faced directly and openly.

That would include an acknowledgement that First Nations are B.C.’s first water users and the “First In Time, First In Right” rules within B.C.’s Water Sustainability Act be amended to accommodate Indigenous priority rights, while also addressing other water needs, including agriculture.

The board also said there’s a need for a draft implementation plan that addresses capacity requirements at all levels and that it be released for review and comment.