Trust Council approves Gabriola water availability assessment

Rachelle Stein-Wotten

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Gabriola Sounder

Funds have been approved for a water availability assessment on Gabriola Island, a crucial aspect to planning for water security into the future, local trustees say.

As part of Trust Council budget deliberations in March, $50,000 was included in the Phase 2 budget of the Gabriola Island Official Community Plan and Land Use Bylaw Comprehensive Review Project for a water availability assessment. That money will be used for consultant services to draft methodology and analysis, collect project data and other coordination and communications.

Gabriola Island Local Trust Committee Trustee Susan Yates said the assessment will be an essential part of the OCP revision.

“Throughout the OCP revision process to date, I have maintained that in order to move forward with the comprehensive OCP review that this community requires, and deserves, a complete water balance study and report must be done,” Yates told the Sounder.

“We need to know where and how groundwater gets in to island catchment areas, how it can be held in reserve for year-long use (not just by humans) and where and how it is used (and lost) by drainage patterns, agriculture and human activities. 

“The proposed ‘water in, water out’ study and report is essential for planning and guiding land use on Gabriola Island, and I am grateful to Trust Council for approving the amount required in the 2024-25 budget.”

Trustee Tobi Elliott is “absolutely delighted” the project component has been approved.  “There is no way we can plan for the future without understanding our water needs now and into the future,” Elliott said, adding the data collected is a “critical piece to understanding where land is suitable to be developed and where we’ll have to put in protective measures.”

Prior to Elliott sitting as a trustee, she was the chair of the Gabriola Housing Advisory Planning Commission. The Gabriola Housing Matters surveys showed respondents were consistently most concerned about impacts to groundwater; the water availability assessment will help respond to those concerns, Elliott said.

Gabriola is considered to be the lowest cost area in the Islands Trust to undertake the assessment because a decade of data for the island is already available through the Regional District of Nanaimo’s drinking water and watershed protection program. Islands Trust staff have said the work completed on Gabriola could act as a case study for other islands.

The total budget approved for Phase 2 of the OCP/LUB review, which runs from 2024 to 2025, is $77,000. The component not allocated for the water availability assessment is set aside for data and mapping updates for updating DPAs, Indigenous consultation to assist with the First Nations engagement process as well as items including communications and legal review.