2024 R44 – Drought

Whereas climate change is causing increasingly unpredictable and extended summer droughts throughout Vancouver Island and the Coastal Region;

And whereas water is a shared resource required by all residents, industry sectors, agriculture and the environment to both sustain life and conduct business:

Therefore be it resolved that the UBCM request the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship conduct a current inventory of surface and groundwater availability, as well as projected future needs, in order to facilitate planning of freshwater storage requirements to supply all residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, Indigenous, emergency and environmental needs to a minimum 50-year threshold.