Farmers in Sunshine Coast say they want to be exempt from water restrictions during drought

As summer droughts become increasingly common and more severe in B.C., farmers on the Sunshine Coast are asking to be exempt from emergency water usage restrictions. 

The district is currently under Stage 2 restrictions — where lawn watering is not permitted, and other types of water usage are permitted with restrictions — but provincial forecasters warn the province could face a long, unusually severe drought this year. 

"We're definitely concerned. We know it's probably coming," said Mel Sylvestre, a produce farmer in Gibsons and the president of the Sunshine Coast Farmers' Institute. 

No outdoor watering is allowed in the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) during its most extreme Stage 4 water restrictions, but farmers say they need to continue watering their crops to maintain their livelihoods and provide food for their community. 

Last year, the district was under Stage 4 restrictions for over three months, from Aug. 31 until Dec. 13. 

Sylvestre says not being able to water their crops jeopardizes farmers' livelihoods, which are often already precarious. 

Beyond that, she says, it also impacts food security on the coast.

"We are separated from the Mainland by ferries, so trucking in all our food, in the long run, is not sustainable," said Sylvestre. 

Currently, farmers are allowed to continue watering for the first two weeks once the district enters Stage 4 restrictions in order to prepare. 

But the farmers' institute has asked the district to permanently exempt all food-producing farms from water restrictions altogether. 

In a statement to CBC News, the district said they are not considering the request. 

"The SCRD Board is not currently contemplating further exemptions because Stage 4 water conservation regulations are an emergency that prioritizes water for essential use (human health, firefighting and environmental flow needs)," reads the statement. 

In a Monday press conference, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Bowinn Ma said British Columbians should prepare for an unusually dry season. 

"The drought situation is serious," she said. "We have not experienced this level of widespread drought across the province this early in the year in recent memory."

'It's heartbreaking'

Julie Carillo, who runs a small produce and egg farm in Sechelt, says she had to cut back on crops last fall, during water restrictions, to the bare minimum.

She says they had to prioritize growing only tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers using the rainwater they had collected in their rain barrels. 

And that lasted about three weeks.

For the remaining two and a half months of water restrictions, they had to spend two to three hours a day gathering water at a non-potable water depot, still only getting about half the amount of water they would typically use in a day. 

"It's heartbreaking that we can't continue," said Carillo. "There's still so much food we can grow in the fall." 

Since the restrictions only apply to outdoor watering, Carrillo says it disproportionately affects farmers, compared to other businesses that use water indoors — like restaurants, beverage producers and cement producers. 

"The current restrictions and rules are not fair to local farmers."