Last week, on October 18th, the Provincial Government of BC released a legislative proposal paper for a new Water Sustainability Act. This has been a long time coming for a couple of reasons:
- This is the first time an update and review of the Provincial Water Act has been undertaken since the inception of the Act in 1909.
- The initial review timeline indicated changes to legislation would be presented in late 2010.
Your final chance to comment is now! Feedback from the public received by Friday, November 15, 2013 will be reviewed and considered as the provincial government prepares a final version of the new legislation.
Info on the proposal, background on the Water Act Modernization and your venue to provide feedback are laid out at: http://engage.gov.bc.ca/watersustainabilityact/
Topics to be included within the updated Water Sustainability Act are:
- Protect stream health and aquatic environments
- Consider water in land use decisions
- Regulate and protect groundwater
- Regulate water use during times of scarcity
- Improve security, water use efficiency and conservation
- Measure and report large-scale water use
- Provide for a range of governance approaches