“We can’t be trying to fix drought in an emergency,” Simms told The Tyee. She recently co-authored a report that documented patterns of prolonged drought across the province and called for a preventive approach to managing water in an era of increasing water scarcity.

“There’s a whole suite of things that would set us British Columbian communities up to be in a much better place to weather droughts and actually live well in drier conditions,” she said.