The state of local emergency will last for the rest of 2025 in Dawson Creek, with city councillors and staff set to reconsider their declaration in two weeks.
“While the area has received recent heavy snowfall, it does not immediately change our water situation. A strong snowpack helps carry us through to March (or) April, when spring runoff begins replenishing rivers and reservoirs,” the city wrote in their announcement.
“Some permitting” has been granted for their short term solution.
“The emergency operations team has secured some permitting and continues to work on obtaining the remaining permits to receive approval for laying the overland water transfer line and pumping from the Peace River,” said city staff.
In responses from stakeholders to environmental assessment paperwork submitted to the province by the city, Indigenous groups said they felt uninvolved. Five of the seven communities contacted by Dawson Creek said they would participate in the assessment process and provided preliminary feedback for the city to respond to as work on the emergency transfer system continues.
“We heard feedback back from some neighbouring communities and First Nations. Then you just kind of stop and regroup, then keep moving forward,” said Mayor Darcy Dober of Dawson Creek. “It’s hard to share the whole story on why we’re doing this and why we need to.”
Work on the long-term solution of a water pipeline is also ongoing. Rerouting the city’s water supply from the Kiskatinaw River to the Peace River via a 36-inch-wide pipeline is the city’s current proposal. If approved, they would stop drawing from the current source.
“We’ve invested a lot of infrastructure in maintaining the Kiskatinaw watershed. We would definitely be talking with the ministries at point on how we deactivate all the stuff,” explained Dober.
“We (will) continue to help rejuvenate the Kiskatinaw and monitor that watershed – we’re not sure exactly how that will look. Once we have a permanent line to the Peace River, unless it’s an emergency I guess, we wouldn’t be pumping from the Kiskatinaw.”
Staff will continue renewing the state of local emergency as the short-term project remains in the permitting process. By continuing to label this a “state of local emergency” staff receive quicker reactions from the province.
The current proclamation is in place until Jan. 6, 2026.
