Water stewardship metrics questioned

Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Minister Nathan Cullen faced grilling in committee this week as the budget for his ministry’s operations came under scrutiny by MLAs.

Independent MLA Adam Walker, who represents Parksville-Qualicum, questioned how the province is measuring the success of its water stewardship initiatives to ensure they are delivering on government’s objectives.

“Looking through the [WLRS] service plan, there’s no performance measures when it comes to this objective to ensure water stewardship from source to tap,” Walker pointed out on April 9. “What is the ministry doing to measure their own success as we go through to try to preserve and make available water for future residents?”

Cullen sidestepped the question, pointing to his ministry’s work with other agencies rather than specific metrics of his ministry’s success. These include ongoing initiatives with the Real Estate Foundation of BC, which Cullen says has a fund dedicated to support watershed security plans, as well as the ministries of Municipal Affairs, Emergency Management and Climate Readiness and Agriculture and Food.

“We have a very good partnership with the Agriculture ministry, who set up a $20 million and then another $83 million fund to work with farmers and ranchers in the broader watershed to help them hold water back on the land further so that we can move back from scarcity as often as possible,” he said.

Walker says funding needs to ensure secure access to water for humans, not just fish.

However, Cullen said the weak point is the federal government, which he says has “stood up” a Canada Water Agency but given no details on where its budget is going.

“We would have some great ways for them to distribute money to places like Parksville and Nanaimo and others,” Cullen told Walker. “The Sunshine Coast comes to mind, and too many others in BC are facing increasing worries about reliable water supply.”

Drought fears in BC continue to mount, with snow conditions on April 1 pointing to extremely dry conditions in Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake, Chetwynd, Dease Lake, Fort St John and Fort Nelson.

The provincial snow pack was 63% of normal on April 1, down from 66% on March 1 and 88% a year ago. This is the lowest reading for April 1 in 50 years.