B.C.’s slow flood recovery leaves farmers worried about future threats

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The first sound of rainfall after three months of drought should have been a delightful moment for Abbotsford farmers in late October. It triggered anxiety instead: The threat of another flood in British Columbia, after last November’s destruction, is real.

Jaswant Dhillon’s home and blueberry farm were ruined when the Sumas River dike breached on Nov. 16, 2021. Today, his fields remain empty, as he wrestles with various arms of government to recover some of his losses. He had eight hectares of mature blueberry bushes, and it will take a decade before new plants would be as productive.

Above all, Mr. Dhillon and his farming neighbours worry that the temporary repairs to the Sumas dike, due to be completed this month, won’t prevent another flood.

“We are all feeling anxiety,” he said in an interview. “We’re worried that we are in the same position that we were in on Nov. 15 last year.”

A permanent solution to the dike that was built to protect the farms, homes and infrastructure on the Sumas Prairie is at least five years away. The urgent commitment last November by governments at all levels to fix the province’s complex and aging system of flood protection has morphed into a lengthy process of consultation and study.

Last year, B.C.’s 1,100 kilometres of dikes fared poorly when a trio of extreme rain events triggered failures, forcing thousands to evacuate and left behind billions of dollars in damage that will take years to repair. Six dikes in three large communities failed, along with structures in more remote areas.

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In Abbotsford, the Sumas dike breached after the Nooksack River overflowed in the heavy rains, putting farms, homes and infrastructure under two metres of water in places. The flood forced the shutdown of the U.S.-Canada border and Highway 1, killed more than 630,000 farm animals, and forced the evacuation of over 3,300 people from their homes.

A specialized army operations team was dispatched to Abbotsford to help with sandbagging, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put in an appearance, promising British Columbians that Ottawa would help “build back better” to protect communities from the growing threat of climate change-fueled disasters.

“We will be here for whatever is needed,” Mr. Trudeau said at the time. “We need to rebuild more resilient infrastructure that’s going to be able to handle hundred year storms every few years, because that seems to be the pattern we’re on.”

Engineers had warned repeatedly that the Sumas dike system was liable to breach during extreme flood events. Those cautions were nothing out of the ordinary: A report for the Fraser Basin Council in March, 2021 warned that “most of the dikes in the province do not fully meet provincial standards” and would likely breach even during relatively weak storms.

Flood protection also failed in last November’s storms in Merritt, where the Coldwater River inundated swaths of the downtown area and residential neighbourhoods, and in Princeton, where the Tulameen River punched two holes in a dike about 600 metres apart.

Canada’s Minister for Emergency Preparedness, Bill Blair, has since committed to a new, low-cost national insurance program to protect homeowners at high risk of flooding and without adequate coverage, as well as an action plan to assist them with potential relocation.

Moreover, the federal government has promised at least $5-billion in disaster relief to B.C. for the floods, but that money will trickle in over years. Ottawa has sent the province $870-million so far and also promised Canada’s largest agriculture flood aid package.

But some farmers say federal money has been slow to arrive: “How will we survive? The government has left us, forgotten us,” Mr. Dhillon said.

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The provincial government has also promised action. The three hardest-hit communities say their repairs will exceed $1-billion, collectively, and to date, the province has paid out about $10-million in disaster financial assistance.

For farmers who lost crops and livestock, a “food security” program has paid out to 360 applicants for such needs as animal feed, shelter and fencing. But many of them are still waiting for visits from government workers as decisions on planting and repairs are made. The province estimates that some repairs and replanting will not be completed until the end of 2023.

In the weeks after the floods, Premier John Horgan acknowledged what municipal governments have been saying for years – that the provincial decision to make flood protection a local responsibility was “a bad call.” Local governments, unable or unwilling to spend the vast amounts of money needed to improve diking infrastructure, did not complete the maintenance recommended by engineering professionals.

Today, responsibility for dikes and other flood protection measures in B.C. remains the same patchwork as before, including more than 100 orphan dikes that have no owner or authority responsible for their maintenance.

The province has tabled an intentions paper on its proposed flood strategy, and a report is expected in the summer of 2023 to summarize public engagement.

B.C.’s Minister of Public Safety said in an interview that the province could take over the whole system of flood protection, or it might adopt a model of shared responsibility – but he offered no timeline for a decision.

“I think it’s fair to say there will be a much greater provincial involvement,” Mike Farnworth said.

He could not say how far B.C. still has to go in recovering from the floods, but he is certain that the $5-billion in disaster relief promised by the federal government will not be enough. Such a payment under the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements program would be historic, but the final tally will probably not be known for years. B.C. has until 2026 to submit its claims.

The mayor of Abbotsford, who served through the floods and chose not to run again in last month’s election, said he shares his constituents’ fears about more disaster now that the rains have returned.

“This is triggering for big, strapping farmers, but more so the children that were impacted,” Henry Braun said in one of his last interviews before leaving office. “I think the mental-health issues will take years to resolve in some cases – just the words ‘atmospheric river’ triggers all sorts of nightmares for people on Sumas Prairie.”

In June, Abbotsford council presented a plan to provincial government for a $2.8-billion fix for the Sumas River dike. The province is still waiting for additional engineering studies before it makes a funding decision. Of that, $800-million would pay for a new pump station, which could be operational in five years. The balance of the money would be for new dikes, and the precise location, height and design are so contentious that Mr. Braun expects it will take five to 10 years before a final decision is made.

“So we probably have a number of November’s to get through – four or five, but that’s a guess on my part. And in the meantime, we are at risk of flooding, similar or actually even worse happening than happened last year. … It could be three weeks from now, or next year.”

B.C.’s flood-protection regime has always been driven by major disasters. The largest flood of Fraser River on record occurred in 1894, and that set the benchmark for dike design. Major floods in 1948 prompted reform with the introduction of the Dike Maintenance Act in 1953.

A major flood of the Nooksack River in 1990 should have led to change, Mr. Braun said, but the political will wasn’t there. This time, he hopes it will be different.

“It is frustrating. There’s so many meetings and so many voices that want a say. I understand that, but at some point, you know, you can’t wait for perfect information.”

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