While Powell River is basking in its near limitless supply of water, Sechelt, a city only 100 kilometres away from us, was recently under strict stage 4 water restrictions.
How can this be? Simply, BC is mismanaging our water.
Back in March 2022, about 12,000 BC groundwater users, mostly farmers and small businesses, had their water rights revoked, and were forced to comply with an unjust law that will make applying for a groundwater licence a litigious nightmare. Worse, any change in water usage requires a new licence, leaving particularly farmers constantly behind big bottling companies in the line for application.
Passing through Sechelt, I saw how their dependence on groundwater tragically crippled local farmers. Plants withered and died while their water was being scooped away by big bottling companies to sell back for profit.
Canada was not built off bottling companies. Our farmers need their priorities at least on the same level with bottling companies, with water specially allocated to them.
If this crisis is to ever be prevented, we must take action. From municipal to provincial levels, we need to support government representatives who stand beside our farmers, to ensure that our future as both a province and a country will not dry up, both economically and literally.
Griffin Leach is a City of Powell River resident.
