After an extensive water pricing review, informed by extensive public comment on government’s Pricing B.C.’s Water discussion paper, government announced new application fees and water rentals early in 2015. These came into effect when the Water Sustainability Act and the new Water Sustainability Fees, Rentals and Charges Tariff Regulation came into force on February 29, 2016. The new fees and rentals attempt to strike a balance and are designed to:

• Further simplify and consolidate the fee and rental rate structure;
• Generate sufficient revenue to recover the costs necessary to fully implement the Water Sustainability Act and associated programs;
• Improve fairness and equity by charging fees and rentals for most groundwater uses and then assigning the same rates for similar water uses;
• Minimize increases to agriculture and aquaculture to help protect food security;
• Accommodate lower increases for conservation and storage purposes in recognition of their positive ecological and recreational values; and
• Limit impacts to B.C.’s business competiveness.

 
For more on water pricing, check out the blog discussion from the spring of 2014 as well as this blog post or visit the click on the links below.
 
News Release and Backgrounder (February 2015)
 
Overview of new fees and rentals (February 2015)
 
Detailed fees and rentals (February 2015)
 
Examples of pricing for selected uses (February 2015)
 
Use our Water Rent Estimator to estimate your water rental rate if you are an existing licensee, or your application fee and rental rate if you are a new applicant.