Why Is Industry Still Getting a Virtually Free Tap?

At Watershed Watch, we’ve been working for years through our CodeBlue BC campaign to advance real solutions for watershed security in B.C. That means defending wild salmon and the rivers they rely on, securing our drinking water sources, and making sure our communities are better prepared for drought, fires and floods.

We made some good gains during that time, including getting the B.C. government to put $157 million towards watershed security initiatives over the past five years. But right now, it feels like we’re moving backward.

In 2024, following B.C.’s worst drought on record, the province appeared to be taking drought more seriously, developing early response plans and coordinating a bit better across ministries. And while we narrowly avoided widespread water scarcity thanks to well-timed summer rainfall, this year is looking much drier, and the provincial response is starting to sound like a broken record.

Meghan Rooney Photo: Originelle Designs Photography

The messaging coming from the B.C. government today looks nearly identical to what we saw back in 2023: asking British Columbians to take shorter showers and water their lawns less.

Sure, those are important things to do, but they’re a drop in the bucket; an unserious solution to a very serious problem.

A fish kill at Ford Creek in 2023 was a result of the removal of riparian vegetation and high water temperatures. 

According to the provincial government’s final snowpack report, we’re entering the summer with just 13 per cent of our normal snowpack remaining. To give that stat some context, at this time of year, typically 75 per cent of the snowpack would have melted. This year, 90 per cent of it has melted, leaving our rivers and aquifers largely reliant on rainfall, just as the hottest, driest months are arriving.

This puts salmon and the waters they depend on directly in harm’s way. And it doesn’t stop there.

Low water levels mean warmer streams, shallower rivers and creeks, and less oxygen for fish. It means harder migration for salmon back to their home waters, with fewer areas of refuge and increased risk of predation and disease. It could mean that spawning areas become dewatered, leaving salmon unable to spawn, or drying out recently laid eggs.

And while you are dutifully turning off the tap while you brush your teeth, major industries are still getting away with using massive volumes of water at virtually no cost.

B.C.’s Industries Pay Pennies for Thousands of Litres of Water

When it comes to water use, the provincial government often likes to reference that residential use is the largest source of water use. But what they don’t tell you is this:

• Industrial water users pay a maximum $2.25 per million litres.
• The industrial water rental rate has not changed in over a decade.
• Most industrial water users in B.C. aren’t being monitored.

Commercial water bottling companies pay a maximum of $2.25 per million litres of water.

To put that million litres of water into perspective, $2.25 buys industry enough water to fill over 6,600 bathtubs or 40 per cent of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Meanwhile, in towns where water use is metered, a regular person will pay hundreds of times more for the water that flows through their taps.

Industrial users include bottled water companies like Primo Water (who now own Nestlé’s bottling operations in B.C.), mining operations, pulp mills, and fossil fuel companies using water for fracking. Some of these industries are polluting the water they are using (more on that later), while others remove it from our water cycle entirely. This is the case for fracking, where contaminated water is sometimes injected deep underground as a means of disposal.

5,000 Water Pollution Cases and No One to Investigate

To make matters worse, we recently learned from a group of watershed defenders for the Middle Shuswap River that 5,000 water-related pollution complaints are currently sitting in a provincial backlog. That’s thousands of potential violations, illegal discharges, contamination, and damage to salmon habitat, left uninvestigated.

This isn’t just a paperwork problem. It’s a failure to defend our rivers, fish, and communities. Enforcement gaps like this put our watersheds and everything in them, from our homes to farms, to fish and wildlife, at risk, especially when combined with climate change and ongoing water scarcity.

We Can Secure Our Watersheds, But We Need to Fund the Work

Raising industrial water rates isn’t just fair, it’s necessary. But it is important that extra revenue:

• Be directed into the B.C. Watershed Security Fund, which is critically under-resourced. The Watershed Security Fund recently received $40 million in project proposals, but it only had $12 million to give out. That’s a $28 million shortfall for work that could restore salmon habitat, monitor stream flows, rebuild wetlands, and prepare communities for floods and fires, while creating good local jobs.
• Support the development of local watershed boards. Water boards are regional bodies that bring together First Nations, governments, farmers, non-profits, and other stakeholders to manage water locally, based on science, stewardship, and shared values.
• Properly investigate and enforce water violations by adequately funding staff at the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship

Cheam Nation received a grant from the Watershed Security Fund for restoration and knowledge-sharing for Hope Slough, in Chilliwack. Photo: Originelle Designs Photography

It’s Time to Raise the Rates

The province needs to stop letting industry off the hook. Water is our most precious resource, and industry should be paying a fair rate for the privilege to use it, especially when the public is being told to make sacrifices.

If industry paid even a modestly higher rate, on par with other provinces, say $35 per million litres, that additional revenue could go directly toward:

• Restoring salmon streams, wetlands, and forests;
  
• Securing drinking water sources;
• Preparing communities to reduce the impacts of wildfire, water scarcity and drought;
• And supporting a network of watershed boards that empower people to manage local waters more effectively.

We’re not asking for a radical solution, just a responsible one. The status quo is failing our salmon, our watersheds, and everyone who calls B.C. home. 

Addressing Misconceptions: We Can Raise Water Rates in B.C.

Some critics claim that increasing industrial water rental rates could make it so that water becomes a commodity under international trade agreements, or that it would scare away investment at a time of economic uncertainty. Let’s clear that up.

Trade agreements don’t stop us from charging fair rates.

Industries pay for a license to use water in B.C., and those licenses come with shockingly low fees. Increasing those rates is entirely within the province’s legal authority. There is a difference between charging a fair rate for water use versus selling it as a commodity. Most importantly, every other province already charges industrial water users more than B.C. does, and they’re not violating any trade agreements. 

Water is a shared resource, and pricing it fairly is part of responsible economic planning.

Reasonable water rates don’t deter responsible industry.

Most industries expect to pay for the natural resources they use. Other provinces, like Quebec, charge over 15 times what B.C. does, and they haven’t seen a mass exodus of investment. These industries have massive bottom lines, and an increase in rates would be a drop in the bucket. Water is a shared resource, and pricing it fairly is part of responsible economic planning.

Take action

The provincial government has the tools to improve how our watersheds are managed in B.C., including the power to raise industrial water rates and reinvest that revenue into watershed security. It’s a practical step that would support salmon, communities, and local decision-making.

But to make it happen, they need to hear from the public.

👉 Use the CodeBlue BC letter-writing tool to tell the Premier and B.C.’s Water Minister it’s time to raise water rental rates and prioritize watershed security: www.codebluebc.ca/letterwriter