This region nearly ran out of water. Locals and experts say other Canadian towns should pay attention
B.C.’s Sunshine Coast declared a state of emergency due to drought in 2022
It's hard to believe that having enough water is an issue at Banditry Cider in Gibsons, B.C. The craft cidery is on a rural property with rows of apple trees, a huge pond filled with ducks, and as James Armstrong surveys the place on a rainy spring day, his boots are covered in mud.
"I assumed because it was Gibsons and we bought this place in the winter, I was like, 'it's always wet here.' And I grew up here and there were never water issues."
Armstrong bought the property five years ago. He and his staff make the cider on site, mostly from apples grown in the Okanagan. It's also a gathering place in the summer, with a food truck, fire pits and events.
While water wasn't an issue when they bought the place, it quickly became one, he says.
In five of the last eight summers, the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) has implemented stage 4 watering restrictions, the highest level, which ban all outdoor water use. That means no watering lawns or gardens or washing cars. Since 2021, farms have been given a two-week grace period once those restrictions begin, after which they can't use municipal water on their crops.
The most serious drought, in 2022, lasted for months. Officials were worried the region was dangerously close to running out of water for the hospital or to fight fires. That prompted the SCRD to declare a local state of emergency, the first time a Canadian municipality has done so because of drought.
WATCH | British Columbia's Sunshine Coast goes without rainfall for 90 days:
But experts warn it's a situation that other regions will face in the coming years, particularly as the climate continues to change. Communities that are encouraging development and tourism, yet rely on one water source, might not be prepared for the increased demand for water in times of drought.
In 2022, under the state of emergency, Armstrong wasn't allowed to use any water indoors or outdoors, so he had to stop producing cider altogether. He lost wholesale customers he'd been building up in the first year of his business, and trees in his orchard died because he couldn't water them.
A failure to plan
The Sunshine Coast is on the mainland of B.C., but the only way to get there is a 40-minute ferry ride from West Vancouver. According to census data, the region grew by 7.3 per cent between 2016 and 2021.
Alton Toth is the chair of the SCRD. During the extended drought in 2022, he sat on Sechelt City Council and said it caught everyone off guard. But he also admits that previous governments didn't prepare for climate change amidst all of the development that was approved on the coast. The region was relying on one water source, Chapman Lake, and when that got too low during months without rain, the region was left without another place to get water.
"I think it's easy to be frustrated. It's easy to be scared or concerned or angry. But we're here now," said Toth. "Unless somebody has developed a time machine that I don't know about, all we can do is just keep moving forward."
The SCRD is installing water meters in homes and businesses in Sechelt, the largest city in the region. Toth says they've discovered and repaired significant leaks in old pipes. The Church Road Well field just outside of Gibson's started supplementing the Chapman system last summer.
There's another well approved to be built near the Langdale ferry terminal, and other sites are being explored to further expand the water sources. The federal government has pledged more than $100 million dollars to upgrade the water treatment plant and fund two new reservoirs in conjunction with the shíshálh Nation.
Toth says he's confident that the region won't be caught in the same dire situation again, as long as the infrastructure is all working.
"We've got other jurisdictions that are coming to us looking for help on how to manage their drought, and how to communicate during their drought, and what to communicate out. So it's a terrible field to be a leader in. But we seem to have become a leader in it."
Solutions carry a price tag
His advice to other municipalities is simple.
"It's easy to stick your head in the sand and tout and praise and brag about your zero to two per cent [property] tax increases. But the fact of the matter is, with doing that, you're just kicking the can down the road."
Since 2022, water fees and taxes in the SCRD have gone up between five and 25 per cent each year.
"It's not going to be easy," Toth warns. "There's going to be a lot of angst in the community about affordability. And that's OK. That's OK for that to be part of that conversation. But those conversations need to start."
Deborah Curran says she hopes the experience on the Sunshine Coast has other water managers across the country taking a closer look at where their water is coming from. She's a professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria.
"I think it's very likely that we'll see it again. So in particular in smaller communities who rely on one water source and who have perhaps not accounted for growth over time or have an uptick in tourism, I think we will definitely see a similar thing again."
Thinking differently about water
Curran says the conversation around water is changing.
"We're changing our sort of our cultural interaction with water, that it's not simply an unrestrained access or supply of water any more. We have to think about it more carefully that it has costs and that we need to use it more judiciously," she said.
James Armstrong at Banditry Cider says the crisis forced him to think about water more carefully. He put in an irrigation system last summer so he could use water from the pond even if the regional district cuts off outdoor water use. But that wasn't enough, so now he's clearing land at the back of the property to expand an existing second pond as a backup.
He says he tries to stay optimistic, but he's not sure if he'll be able to keep his cidery going with the uncertainty that climate change brings.
"You do what you can. So when it happens at least you can say you've prepared as much as you could," says Armstrong.
He chokes up a little talking about the future.
"I think it's because I have kids. Yeah, it's hard. And we live in such a beautiful place. Like we get to see orcas still, you know. You don't know how long that's going to happen for."
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