This story is part of When in Drought, a series about threats to B.C.’s imperilled freshwater systems and the communities working to implement solutions.

Coho salmon were on track to have a good year in the Tsolum River, which merges with the Puntledge River near Courtenay, B.C., on the east coast of Vancouver Island.

Then came the heatwave and drought. 

“The numbers were so good before the heat came. It was a particularly good year,” says biologist Caroline Heim, the program coordinator of the Tsolum River Restoration Society.

Between June 26 and 29, the community restoration group observed coho fry swarming in massive numbers at cool groundwater upwelling “refugia” sites where water temperatures were up to 15 C cooler than the general river temperature — which climbed as high as 29 C during that time. Within that period — during which the hottest temperature ever in Canada was recorded in Lytton, B.C. — the group also observed a significant coho die-off.

“​​It’s hard to quantify how many died. A conservative estimate would be at least half, but probably much more than that,” says Heim. “It’s pretty dire.”

The Tsolum River is part of the East Vancouver Island Basin, a region experiencing a severe drought caused by low spring precipitation and record-high temperatures. 

On Friday, the province increased the drought severity on Vancouver Island to level five, the most intense drought rating possible. Under level five drought conditions, adverse impacts on socio-economic or ecosystem values are “almost guaranteed,” according to the B.C. drought information portal.

The Tsolum River on eastern Vancouver Island recorded temperatures of 29 C during B.C.’s heat dome in late June. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

The province declared significant drought conditions across B.C. on July 9, noting that “adverse impacts on fish have been observed” due to elevated water temperatures, low flow conditions and reduced water availability. The public is being urged to conserve water.

Since the initial June to July heatwave shocked the Pacific Northwest, Heim says the Tsolum River Restoration Society has observed significantly fewer fish in the river, especially in its lower portions. Many of the remaining coho, which survived the heat wave, are suffering from diseases and fin rot as a result of heat stress, she adds.

Now that pink salmon are beginning to run in the Tsolum, Heim says the restoration group will monitor for signs of early fatalities, which may occur before the fish get a chance to spawn, as brutal regional heat and drought conditions persist.

Such tough conditions aren’t limited to the Tsolum, however.

On eastern Vancouver Island, watersheds of special concern in the ongoing drought include Sandhill Creek, Koksilah River, Chemainus River, Millstone River, Tsolum River, Black Creek as well as areas in the Gulf Islands.

Decreasing flows, losing habitat and warming Vancouver Island waters

While there are other regions in central and southern B.C. also in the grips of drought, watersheds on eastern Vancouver Island are particularly sensitive to prolonged dry conditions because the region’s salmon streams are relatively short and small, explains biologist Tanis Gower, science and policy advisor for Watershed Watch Salmon Society. 

Low stream flows naturally occur in small rivers on eastern Vancouver Island during the summer months when precipitation is scarce, but increasing drought and extreme heat patterns are further reducing summer stream flows — often coinciding with migration and spawning cycles, key stages in life of salmon that are crucial for survival.

While some rivers may once have relied on glacial snowpack melt to keep water flowing in a typical summer, climate change is shrinking glaciers, creating smaller winter snowpacks that melt earlier and keep stream flows low.

Low stream flows and drier rivers can restrict salmon habitat availability, de-water critical riffle and side channel habitat, leave fish vulnerable to predators and prevent adult salmon from migrating to their spawning grounds.

Low stream flows can also heat up water temperature beyond the liveable range for salmon, further stressing the fish, Gower says.

Streams on eastern Vancouver Island have experienced increasing patterns of heat and drought conditions in recent summers. 

Coho salmon fry are rescued by volunteers during a perilously dry Cowichan River in the summer of 2015. Photo: Cowichan Lake and River Stewardship Society / Facebook

Ron Ptolemy, river biologist and streams and flow specialist with the province’s Ministry of Environment, says droughts are starting earlier and lasting longer. 

“We have streams that now go regularly dry, which is not a good theme for fish,” he says. “There is a direct negative impact on what number of fish can be produced.”

This year, Ptolemy observed “exceedingly low” stream flows in rivers on eastern Vancouver Island. 

Coupled with extreme heat conditions, the impacts are tangible. 

Ptolemy cites a massive fish die-off in the Quinsam River, which feeds the Campbell River, in part due to low flows and stream temperatures reaching as high as 29 C. At the Cowichan River, a larger stream that flows from Cowichan Lake to Cowichan Bay, Ptolemy says he observed many fish with poor bodily conditions.

The Cowichan Valley: ‘We’re not waiting for climate change. It’s already here’

Vancouver Island’s famed Cowichan Valley boasts having one of Canada’s only “maritime Mediterranean climatic zone.” The valley, which extends from Mill Bay, just north of Victoria, to Ladysmith, just south of Nanaimo, is also known for having the warmest year–round temperatures in the country.

The valley’s two main rivers, the Cowichan River and the Koksilah River, have already been hit hard by the impacts of climate change.

Climate projections for the Cowichan Valley predict hotter and longer summers and less summer rain. The analysis found the number of summer days above 25 C may more than double from the current average of 16 days per year to 39 days per year by the 2050s. 

Residents say they’re already seeing the effects of hotter, dryer weather firsthand. 

Debra Toporowski, a board member for the Cowichan Watershed Board and a councillor with Cowichan Tribes, says salmon populations in the watershed have drastically decreased in her lifetime.

But in conversations she’s had with Elders, she’s learned the changes to salmon populations are even more drastic than her personal observations.

“The Elders of our time have mentioned it was so full of salmon, you could walk on the backs of the fish to get to the other side of the river, basically. It was so packed. There was nothing but salmon,” she says.

Extreme heat and drought conditions, expected to become the new normal, are amplifying threats to salmon by drying and warming critical habitat.

“We’re not waiting for climate change. It’s already here,” says Tom Rutherford, Cowichan Valley resident and executive director of the Cowichan Watershed Board. 

Tom Rutherford resident of the Koksilah Watershed and executive director of Cowichan Watershed Board. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

The headwaters of the Cowichan River are located in Lake Cowichan, and since 1951 a weir system has been used to ensure the river is fed a steady supply of water. But in recent years, lower water flows and less precipitation have meant more water users along the Cowichan are vying for a limited water supply. In late 2020 the federal government put $24.2 million into a seven-year program, led by Cowichan Tribes in partnership with the Cowichan Watershed Board, to help restore the Cowichan watershed.

As part of that restoration program, the aging weir will be replaced with a new structure, 70 centimetres higher than the current weir, allowing more water to be stored and released during the summer droughts.

But for the Koksilah River, finding solutions to low water flow is much more difficult. The Koksilah watershed’s water is stored in wetlands, a handful of small lakes and underground aquifers. Because the Koksilah isn’t fed by a single large body of water, the river relies on rain and snowmelt from the mountains. 

Whitewater kayaking along the Koksilah River, which experiences high water volumes in the rainy fall and very low water flows in the hot summer. Both high and low water flows in the Koksilah can be perilous for salmon. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

And climate change projections for the Cowichan Valley suggest the region can anticipate more extreme weather events, especially more rain in the non-summer months, which can lead to flash floods that can wipe out spawning habitat for salmon. Overall, salmon are being impacted by weather events on both sides of the flood and drought extremes.

The Koksilah relies on the inflow of groundwater, the cooling water of which can be essential for salmon survival during the hottest months of the year. But the majority of water extracted from the Koksilah watershed is drawn from groundwater, which has come under significant strain from growing farms, forestry, recreational businesses and rural development. A 2018 study conducted by the Watershed Watch Salmon Society found that 70 per cent of water used in the Koksilah watershed is well water drawn from aquifers. 

Now as the region’s water reserves are depleting, even deep wells are beginning to run dry. Tests show some aquifer levels have dropped by 30 metres, signaling deep trouble for salmon.

How to heal a river

A new era of watershed planning for B.C.

Two summers ago, B.C. issued an emergency fish population protection order for the Koksilah that required specific water users to cease all use for nearly two months to protect fish populations under threat.

At the time of that emergency order, almost exactly two years ago, the province stated that ministry biologists “determined that current flow levels are so low that habitat conditions are severely degraded and fish populations may be threatened.”

It was the first year that flows became so dangerously low in the Koksilah that volunteer efforts were not enough to prevent the province from stepping in to revoke licenced water holders’ right to use water.

Rutherford of the Cowichan Watershed Board says those restrictions cost the Cowichan community tens of thousands of dollars.

Since then, the community has come up with new solutions, Rutherford says. Both this and last summer, farmers have divided into two cohorts which alternate irrigation periods to halve agricultural water use and preserve crops. 

“That’s the kind of innovative solution that we need,” Rutherford tells The Narwhal. “Our water flows aren’t falling as low this year as they did in 2019, even though it’s drier because we’ve come up with a strategy to address environmental concerns and still meet some [farming] production needs.”

Community members, stakeholders and government representatives are collaborating to develop watershed-specific solutions for the Cowichan/Koksilah watershed.

A local pulp and paper mill operates the licenced weir at Cowichan Lake and is working with the community to release more water during summer droughts.

Catalyst Paper holds the water licence for the weir at the junction of Cowichan Lake and Cowichan River. The Catalyst Mill in Crofton, B.C., is a major employer in the Cowichan Valley and Catalyst is working with community members to address water shortages due to climate change. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

And the Koksilah River is at the helm of the province’s first-ever water sustainability plan. Signed by the Cowichan Tribes and the province, the emerging plan could restore some of the Koksilah’s ecosystems and salmon integrity while setting an example of collaborative watershed security for the entire province. 

The success of the river’s plan hinges on the willingness of community members and stakeholders with diverse water interests to work together, Rutherford says. Without this kind of action the salmon will continue suffering devastating declines as extreme climate events increase in frequency, he adds.

“We’re on a trajectory that’s going to make it really hard for some species of salmon to survive where they have for millennia.”

What can B.C. do about drought and water scarcity?

Both the Koksilah water sustainability plan and the river’s 2019 emergency water cut-off were made possible under B.C.’s fairly new Water Sustainability Act — legislation introduced in 2016 to replace the province’s century-old water rules. 

The new water act aims to shift the priorities of the province’s water management scheme from centring economic interests to protecting water for current and future generations.

Water experts and advocates say the new legislation was much needed because 63 per cent of British Columbians live in water-stressed areas.

The legislation opens up new opportunities to address drought and water scarcity in the province from the watershed level. In practice, experts say that could mean ensuring enough water is available in the system and conserving water during the summer, with built-in flexibility to respond with water allocations during emergencies. The key, they say, is ensuring watershed management is adaptive with climate change, rather than reactionary to climate change events.

But experts say implementation has been slow, despite some progress on the Cowichan/Koksilah watershed.

“A first immediate priority for government is finishing the work of the Water Sustainability Act, which is now over five years old and only barely implemented,” wrote Oliver Brandes, co-director of the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance, in an op-ed from earlier this year.

“The Act urgently needs to be moved from ‘good ideas on paper’ to action to protect lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers across the province. This starts by finishing the long-promised groundwater licensing and water planning and flow protection that better balances water for nature, fish and communities.”

The province’s Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development did not provide a response to The Narwhal before publication.

Experts and advocates alike say the Water Sustainability Act could protect wild salmon and watersheds, and are pushing the province to boost support and funding for more watershed-specific water sustainability plans to address water conflicts and to commit to licencing and regulating groundwater extraction, the deadline for which has already been delayed once.

Gower of Watershed Watch Salmon Society points to the collaboration and restoration planning underway in the Koksilah River as an example of a meaningful way forward.

“That is really how we’re going to address the conflicts between fish and humans that are being made so much worse right now by climate change,” she says.

The Narwhal’s When in Drought series is funded by the Real Estate Foundation of BC, which administers the Healthy Watersheds Initiative, and the BC Freshwater Legacy Initiative, a project of the MakeWay Foundation. As per The Narwhal’s editorial independence policy, no foundation or outside organization has editorial input into our stories.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

Bob Chamberlin is in a long-term relationship with wild Pacific salmon.

“My relationship with fish and salmon began pretty much when my life did,” said Chamberlin, who is a member of the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation in the Broughton Archipelago and chair of the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance.

“I was raised with salmon.”

Chamberlin reminisces on the joy he felt after he fed his family with cod he had caught when he was just seven years old. He later went on to become a commercial fisherman based out of Campbell River, during which he continued providing his family with fish, and especially salmon, a traditional food.

For many First Nations communities in B.C., Pacific salmon represent “so much more than a menu choice,” said Chamberlin, citing how salmon sustain survival and existence for many Indigenous communities on the coast and along river headwaters.

He’s fighting to protect wild Pacific salmon, which are already facing devastating population declines along the coast. And he’s particularly concerned about open-net pen fish farms in coastal waters. 

In 2019, the federal government vowed to phase out open-net pen fish farms by 2025, but later walked back on its pledge by re-wording their timeline to simply have a plan developed by 2025 to make the transition away from open-net pens.

In late July, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) quietly released a report on the findings of its initial engagement process with stakeholders, but did not include any update on its plan or timeline to phase out open-net pens from B.C. waters, sounding alarm bells for conservation groups who say protecting wild salmon requires immediate action.

Open-net pens can release sea lice, disease, excess food and feces into the marine environment and increase the risks of harmful algal blooms and diseases for wild fish, with elevated risk along migratory pathways for wild salmon. When Atlantic salmon are farmed in open-containment systems in Pacific waters, mass escapes could affect wild Pacific salmon.

“We’re in a state of crisis and need that plan,” Karen Wristen, the executive director of environmental organization Living Oceans Society, told The Narwhal. “Wild salmon can’t wait.”

A new poll from Insights West reveals that 86 per cent of B.C. residents are extremely concerned about declining Pacific salmon stocks and 75 per cent believe that fish farms should be transitioned to land-based systems.

The rise of the land salmon

DFO report identifies June 2022 ‘an important milestone’ for fish farm transition

The DFO report expressed a wide range of views based on input from First Nations representatives, local governments, fish health experts and researchers, environmental groups and the fish farming industry.

The report is based on the feedback of 114 participants and over 5,400 written submissions gathered between December 2020 and April 2021. Quoted stakeholders are unnamed throughout the report.

Participants suggested various alternatives to open-net pen fish farming, such as land-based aquaculture, closed- or semi-closed containment systems, and hybrid methods, which involve moving fish from land to the ocean during different life stages.

Wild fish advocates say hybrid systems won’t solve the issues with open-net pens. “That’s no improvement,” Wristen said.

While the report did not include a fish farm transition timeline nor a plan to support affected communities with economic opportunities, it did acknowledge the time sensitivity in upcoming renewal options for B.C.’s 109 federally-issued fish farm licences — the majority of which are set to expire next year. 

“A large percentage of tenure decisions will need to be made by June 2022 — an important milestone for this transition. The decisions made during this transition will have a significant impact on the livelihoods of British Columbians,” wrote MP Terry Beech, parliamentary secretary to the minister of fisheries, in the report’s foreword.

This acknowledgement signals hope for those campaigning to phase out open-net pens, who say they believe their work is being heard by decision makers. 

Wristen recommends DFO consider alternatives to renewing those licenses, noting tenures could be turned over to First Nations communities who want to pursue some form of aquaculture. Shellfish or seaweed farming, forms of restorative aquaculture that benefit marine ecosystems, should be considered as alternatives, she said.

By 2025, Wristen hopes the open-net pens are, once and for all, out of the water. 

“The farming of fish is no doubt an important part of our future, but it needs to be done on land in controlled conditions so it doesn’t pollute the environment.”

Fish out of water: How B.C.’s salmon farmers fell behind the curve of sustainable, land-based aquaculture

Report also highlights DFO’s complicated legacy with communities, First Nations

In the new DFO report, some participants questioned the department’s oversight, echoing concerns that have been raised for nearly a decade. 

“Rebuilding wild fish stocks should not be tied to the evolution of the aquaculture industry — it should be a separate initiative,” said one stakeholder in the report.

The idea that DFO’s mandate represents potential conflict of interest — both conserving wild fish while promoting the interests of the aquaculture industry — dates back to 2009, when Canada established the Cohen Commission to investigate the decline of sockeye salmon populations.  

The commission released their final report in 2012, coupled with 75 recommendations. One recommendation called on DFO to eliminate its promotion of the aquaculture industry.

An open-net pen salmon farm off the B.C. coast. In its stakeholder engagement, DFO heard members of the public do not trust the department to lead an engagement plan for transitioning B.C. salmon farms out of the water. Photo: Tavish Campbell

“The problems associated with aquaculture are substantially exacerbated by DFO’s stated mandate to promote the aquaculture industry, and its movement away from simply conserving wild fish,” reads the 2012 report.

While DFO said it has acted on all 75 recommendations of the Cohen report, conservationists say several recommendations under the aquaculture umbrella still await implementation.

For instance, the Cohen Commission report recommended removing all open-net pens from B.C. waters. The federal government recently announced that 19 open-net fish farms along a key migration route in the Discovery Islands near Campbell River, B.C. will be phased out by June 30, 2022.

When pressed on the question of a timeline for removing the remaining farms, a spokesperson for the DFO told The Narwhal, “the Government of Canada is committed to working with relevant partners and stakeholders on the development of a responsible plan for transitioning open-net pens in coastal B.C. waters by 2025.”

The 2012 Cohen report also recommended applying the precautionary principle to B.C.’s aquaculture management, which means that conservation measures should be applied when scientific certainty is not confirmed and when there is a risk of serious or irreversible harm to the environment. 

Several stakeholders who participated in DFO’s initial engagement report advanced the same recommendation. “The precautionary approach is the only approach for B.C.,” wrote one participant who believes open-net pens harm wild Pacific salmon. 

Achieving scientific certainty and understanding the potential ecological consequences of fish farms will require comprehensive risk assessments, which wild salmon advocates say DFO has not yet completed.

“There’s absolutely zero objectivity or credibility” in the risk research the DFO has published to date, Chamberlin, from the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance, told The Narwhal. Last Fall, multiple First Nations leaders conveyed doubt about a DFO assessment that found fish farms pose minimal risk to declining wild sockeye salmon populations.

A wild juvenile pink salmon from Nootka Sound, B.C., covered in and scarred by parasitic sea lice in 2020. A September 2020 study found the fish farming industry regularly under-report the number of lice on their fish. The spread of sea lice from salmon farms to wild fish is linked to shrinking wild salmon runs, so farms are required by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to do regular louse counts. Credit: Tavish Campbell

Other events have undermined the public’s trust in the department and its commitment to protecting and promoting the recovery of wild salmon stocks.

Recently, The Narwhal reported on internal documents that reveal DFO scientists discussed mouth rot disease that infested Atlantic salmon farms in B.C. with the salmon farming industry last fall, but without informing the public or First Nations communities about the “realistic and serious” risks of transmission to wild salmon. The DFO has also been accused of not disclosing contributions from the salmon farm industry to fund fish farm research. 

The DFO report notes that “several participants suggested that there was some distrust of DFO as the organizer of an engagement process for providing input into a transition plan” away from salmon farms.

Chamberlin said DFO’s track record on science and decision-making in aquaculture has made himself and other Indigenous stakeholders wary.

“They have a really long road to go before there’s any measure of trust with First Nations,” said Chamberlin, who is currently collaborating with Indigenous communities across the province to put together a B.C. First Nations Salmon Restoration Framework.

DFO acknowledged the “ongoing lack of proper engagement with First Nations on fisheries and aquaculture” in the new initial engagement report, which devotes a section to advancing reconciliation and aligning the engagement process with principles in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). 

Within a section of the report addressing reconciliation, stakeholders commented on the need for nation-to-nation, government-to-government engagement for shared decision-making and for DFO to build resourcing and capacity into the process to ensure First Nations communities can participate. 

Some participants shared Chamberlin’s frustration with DFO.

“We the chiefs gave the authority to DFO to manage the resources and we’ve come to the state where we’re at the last buffalo, only instead it’s the last wild salmon and the last herring,” the report quotes one participant as saying.

The formal open-net pen fish farm engagement process is scheduled to begin this fall.

In an emailed statement to The Narwhal, DFO said future engagement will build on conversations and feedback reflected in the initial engagement report, noting additional programs to support the process.

“DFO is developing a funding program that will support First Nations with support for travel, training or other activities related to consultation sessions. DFO is also working with the First Nations Fisheries Council on the development of an Indigenous engagement strategy and communication materials.”

While it’s unclear how DFO will proceed in developing a plan to phase out open-net pens and what their final approach to reconciliation and engagement will entail, Chamberlin hopes the department will put wild salmon first by phasing out open-net pens and separating its primary responsibility of wild fish conservation from its engagement with the aquaculture industry.

Above all, Chamberlin said DFO must respect how First Nations communities choose to organize themselves and must provide Indigenous stakeholders with adequate resources for capacity to participate in and inform a full-fledged transition plan.

“DFO Pacific has specifically done a very, very poor job in terms of reconciliation with First Nations. They have mountains to climb and rivers to cross to get anywhere near a measure of reconciliation on fish,” he said.

Updated Thursday, August 19, 2021 at 3:06 p.m. PT: This article was updated to remove reference to the ability of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon to disrupt the genetics of wild Pacific salmon. Atlantic and Pacific salmon cannot interbreed, so fugitive farmed salmon do not pose the genetic threat on the Pacific coast of Canada that they do on the Atlantic coast. Escaped farm Atlantic salmon do pose a threat to wild Pacific salmon stocks, however, through the transmission of disease and parasites.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

In early 2021 Karen Burns noticed trees were coming down at the site of a contested rock quarry project in a nature-rich, primarily residential area just northwest of Victoria, B.C., known as the Highlands. The next day, Burns, a former District of Highlands councillor, showed up at the site entrance, located on the southern side of the Highlands on Millstream Road, with a protest sign in hand. 

She’s been protesting on the frontlines of the project nearly every day since. And now the battle against the quarry might — rather surprisingly — wend all the way to Canada’s Supreme Court.

Burns was still a councillor in 2016, when the District of Highlands council rejected the Victoria-based OK Industries Ltd.’s rezoning application to use the wooded 65-acre lot they purchased in 2015 for industrial use. But four years later, despite repeated and vocal opposition of the district, the B.C. ministry of energy, mines and petroleum resources granted OK Industries Ltd. a mining permit, overriding the concerns of the local community and giving the project a green light.

Since then, members of the citizen group Not OK, including Burns, have held daily protests at the quarry site, nearby at Thetis Lake Park, and dropped signs over the Trans Canada Highway to raise awareness. A community door-to-door petition opposing the project collected 1,000 signatures, representing nearly half of the district’s population. 

“It’s been very disappointing in the way that the province could just override everything that we stand for out here,” says Burns, who moved to the Highlands two decades ago to be closer to nature. More than one third of the Highlands landscape is protected as park land.

The Highlands District Community Association (HDCA) has been leveraging any legal recourse available to reverse the province’s approval of the mine, including a challenge of a decision by Herman Henning, B.C.’s chief inspector of mines, to approve the quarry permit without considering the climate impacts of the mine. 

In his assessment of the project, Henning observed that while Canada has passed “a non-binding motion to declare a national climate emergency in Canada,” climate change was not an issue of relevance under B.C.’s Mines Act.

Last month, the B.C. Court of Appeal agreed, rejecting the district’s case because provincial mining legislation does not require climate change to be considered when making decisions to approve mining projects.

“This is a submission that seeks a legislative response to a problem of global magnitude, but provides no basis for this court to intervene,” judge Barbara Fisher stated in her ruling. “While climate change is no doubt an important issue, it is not a key element in the text or purpose of the statutory scheme under the Mines Act.”

On Thursday, the Highlands District Community Association asked the Supreme Court of Canada to weigh in on whether or not B.C. officials can ignore climate change when approving mining projects. 

“Our Supreme Court of Canada case asks whether B.C.’s mines inspector can decide that climate change is irrelevant in assessing mining projects,” association chair Scott Richardson said in a statement. “Should B.C.’s mining legislation be interpreted to make climate change analysis and mitigation a mandatory requirement of the mine assessment process?”

Richardson notes in a press release that the association board unanimously passed a motion asking the Supreme Court to rule on the question as the temperature in the Highlands reached a record 41 degrees C.

• 

  Signage at the rock quarry, operated by OK Industries. Photo: Not OK / Facebook

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  Machinery operating at the Millstream quarry site. Photo: Not OK / Facebook

“The whole world is waking up to the fact that climate change is affecting all of us in disastrous ways, yet our governments haven’t acted to change legislation to curtail climate change in step with our common interests and international commitments to reduce greenhouse gases,” Richardson said.

The controversy is moving the spotlight from the quarry project to the pitfalls of B.C.’s outdated mining laws, which organizations from across B.C. and beyond have been pressuring the government to modernize for years. 

Set within the context of unprecedented heatwaves, drought and catastrophic wildfires, many are calling for new mining rules that align with the province’s desperate need to not only consider but combat climate change. 

“They are just nowhere near what we would expect in the 21st century where we understand that we’re in a climate crisis,” says Deborah Curran, executive director of the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre.  

“We need reform in order to actually bring our antiquated mining laws up to a 21st century standard.”

Audit of B.C.’s tailings pond regulations casts shadow on government’s ‘world class’ mining claims

Reforming B.C.’s mining laws

Advocates and experts pushing for provincial mining legislation reform in B.C. say the province lags significantly behind other jurisdictions. 

The Environmental Law Centre, which has been at the forefront of calls for mining reform in the province, has drawn specific attention to the downsides of B.C.’s aging mineral tenure rules.

Under B.C.’s “free entry” mining system, based on legislation originally written in the 1850s during the gold-rush era, any individual or company can register a claim anywhere on public or private land (except in particular protected parks or reserves) — without requiring consent from landowners or First Nations.

The law centre found that B.C.’s mining law “gives unique priority to mineral development over other land uses and rights.” Under the outdated system, “only a small portion of the provincial land base is designated “off-limits” to mining,” a report from the centre reads, noting that across the province, B.C.’s mining laws “create confusion and conflict by claiming to give mining rights preference over private property rights, Indigenous rights, local bylaws, land-use planning and the protection of sensitive areas.”

These systemic problems have been on full display in the Highlands, where local residents, community groups and council have tried every avenue to exercise more decision-making authority over the rock quarry project.

Climate change wasn’t the only tool Highlands community members used to attempt to thwart the project. The district council denied OK Industries Ltd.’s rezoning application, but were disregarded when the province granted their approval. The community also tried to assert local tree-cutting bylaws to halt the project, but the courts sided with the project proponents.

Curran says this is because mining is under provincial jurisdiction, and B.C.’s mining legislation does not consider local plans or bylaws in deciding where mining activity can occur. 

B.C.’s mining laws do address environmental impacts through the protection and reclamation of land, water and cultural heritage resources on a case-by-case basis, but they do not mandate any specific considerations. 

“We need mining law reform in order to actually name climate change as a factor that needs to be taken into consideration,” says Curran.

And it’s not just the province’s mining laws that need a refresh, she adds.

“The public concern and the public consciousness has so surpassed where we are with environmental law,” says Curran, citing similar gaps in forestry and watershed laws. 

B.C. voters support mining reforms that protect the environment, make polluter pay: poll

As Curran puts it, the current proponent-based system means developers might spend years justifying their projects to communities that don’t want mines, and communities shell out millions of dollars to fight the proposals.

Even the question of how significant the climate impacts of the quarry are was left to the community to determine. 

In a media release, Richardson, from the Highlands District Community Association, said that in its rejection of the group’s petition to have climate change impacts considered under the Mines Act, the B.C. Court of Appeal acknowledged that climate change “could have been relevant” to the permitting decision. But the court noted neither the community association “nor anyone else presented to the mines inspector factual, comprehensive scientific evidence about potential climate change impacts associated with the project.”

The Court’s decision “reveals that the Mines Act unfairly places the onus on individuals and organizations such as the HDCA to prove climate change impacts of projects,” the release states.

Curran says eliminating B.C.’s “free entry” mining system is the first step in reforming the province’s mining laws in the context of the District of Highlands case.

Curran proposes a planning-based approach informed by biodiversity and ecological connectivity research, in which the province would enter into agreements with each Indigenous community or governing body about where mining activity may occur and where it will never be acceptable.

Local residents have been actively protesting against the rock quarry since early 2021 when land-clearing activities began, despite ongoing legal challenges against the project. Photo: Not OK / Facebook

The reforms would mean that ore deposits in ecologically or culturally sensitive areas would likely never be developed, and mine developers would have an understanding of where mine applications might be successful, says Curran.

For District of Highlands residents opposed to the quarry, their five-year battle against the quarry persists.

Burns lists off worries about groundwater contamination from blasting activity, climate change and the loss in carbon sequestration that would result from logging the property, as well as the impacts of dust and noise on residents.

“It goes against our bylaws, community values and our policies. We pride ourselves in being green, sustainable and carbon neutral. And this would just be taking down a 65-acre forest that was fairly pristine, older second-growth, wetlands and just putting a great big pit there after extracting all those materials. We couldn’t stand for that.”

While Burns plans to continue attending protests of the project, she says the community is now working toward a boycott of OK Industries Ltd.’s paving services.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.