As drought conditions worsen across the province, the BC NDP are telling British Columbians to conserve water, while selling water off to corporations. The BC Green Caucus is calling on the Province to be more transparent with how it’s safeguarding water as it risks selling off its most precious resource. 

“BC is failing to protect drinking water, salmon habitat, agriculture, and long-term climate resilience,” said Rob Botterell, MLA for Saanich North and the Islands. 

“In my riding—and across Vancouver Island—residents are being told to conserve their water usage in the same week that our governments direct water to AI data centres. The province must move beyond emergency drought responses and implement a modern provincial water framework that protects watersheds before they collapse.” 

Last week, the BC Greens called for a moratorium on AI data centres until environmental, energy, health, and data sovereignty risks are properly understood and regulated. The government is not being transparent with how it is safeguarding its water against corporate interests. On eastern Vancouver Island, watersheds supplying most of the Island’s population and agricultural production are privately owned and managed. The Private Managed Forest Land Act that these watersheds fall under, has far weaker protections than those applied on Crown land under the Forest and Range Practices Act. 

“The government’s current build-first, regulate-later approach puts corporate profits ahead of long-term water and energy security. British Columbians deserve a government willing to protect the ecosystems and public resources our future depends on,” said BC Greens Leader Emily Lowan.

The BC Greens are calling on the BC government to sspend all non-essential industrial water uses, including fracking, bottling, and AI data usage, during droughts, Create a provincial framework to limit the use of fresh water in fracking and AI operations, Modernize industrial water rates—currently among the lowest in Canada—so British Columbians benefit from large-scale corporate water use, Create and fund watershed boards so First Nations, farmers, industry, and residents have a say in water operations, Return responsibility for oil and gas water licensing and approvals to the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, rather than the BC Energy Regulator

“Healthy watersheds are not just environmental infrastructure, they are economic infrastructure,” said Jeremy Valeriote, MLA for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky. “BC’s watershed sector could support nearly 50,000 jobs and contribute $5 billion annually to the provincial economy. Instead, our government is captured by the fantasy that approving resource-intensive AI data centres without proper oversight will yield some big economic advantage.”