For the first time since Metro Vancouver introduced its tiered watering programme, the regional district has skipped stage one and moved directly to stage two — banning all lawn watering, restricting decorative-fountain use and tightening commercial water permits — to preserve reservoir capacity for an early wildfire season that has already produced 20 active fires in British Columbia and eight in Alberta as of the weekend.
The decision, taken by the Metro Vancouver Regional District board on Wednesday evening, reflects what its water-supply director called "an unusual May" in which snowpack runoff is finishing earlier than normal and forecasted precipitation through June is "below the bottom decile." The Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam reservoirs are at levels typically associated with late June rather than mid-May.
Stage two also restricts agricultural irrigation in adjacent farming areas of Surrey, Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge to defined morning and evening windows. Restaurants and businesses face limits on washing exterior surfaces. Penalties for first-offence violations start at $250 for residential users.
British Columbia has piloted a series of fire-preparedness measures in recent weeks, including expanded mutual-aid funding for municipalities and an Albertan-style incentive of up to $125,000 per incident for communities sending firefighters across provincial lines. The federal government, which Mark Carney consulted before unveiling Thursday's clean electricity strategy, has flagged that this fire season could test the limits of available aerial-tanker capacity.
The City of Vancouver itself, which had already issued an advisory against decorative watering, added a request to households to delay non-essential laundry and dishwashing through the weekend.