From Water Act to Water Sustainability Act: Changes and Opportunities to Advance Water Sustainability in BC

British Columbia’s new Water Sustainability Act (WSA) will enable the sustainable management of water and aquatic ecosystems, but requires a multi-disciplinary understanding of the causes of water crises, management complexities, and the new water management changes and opportunities under the WSA. This evaluation provides a comparative assessment of the potential changes to water allocation decision-making and opportunities for water management in BC as a result of the introduction of the WSA, which will replace the Water Act (WA) in 2016. The goal of the WSA is to manage water sustainably under increasing demand, climatic variability and frequency of water scarcity. This evaluation focuses on the changes to the water management regime as a result of moving from the WA to the WSA, and in particular on (i) significant immediate changes to water allocation for societal and environmental purposes, and (ii) opportunities for water planning and protection provisions.