{"id":748603,"date":"2026-06-20T02:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/748603\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T02:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:53:10","slug":"surrey-slammed-for-flouting-metro-vancouver-water-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/748603\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrey slammed for flouting Metro Vancouver water restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Surrey city officials are under fire for their decision to defy Metro Vancouver’s water restrictions.<\/p>\n

Surrey is the only Metro Vancouver water district municipality to remain at Stage 2 restrictions rather than moving to the stricter Stage 3<\/a>, according to the city’s director of utilities. <\/p>\n

It’s the first time in memory that a member municipality has gone rogue over the region’s water plan, Metro Vancouver staff say.<\/p>\n

Local politicians took aim at Surrey’s choice Friday at a special Metro Vancouver water district board meeting, called specifically to discuss watering restrictions amid “questions and concerns” and “perceived unfairness” over why Surrey seems exempt from regional direction.<\/p>\n

Jerry Dobrovolny, Metro Van’s chief administrative officer and commissioner of the water district, highlighted a data point from last weekend at the board meeting.<\/p>\n

“Our two biggest cities use about half the water. Vancouver’s using less, and Surrey’s using more \u2014 and that’s a concern,” Dobrovolny said.<\/p>\n

Surrey city council approved changes to its drinking water bylaws that allow exceptions to the standardized regional water restrictions at a meeting last month, before Stage 3 watering restrictions went into effect in other cities. <\/p>\n

Stage 3 restrictions are the third highest of four levels; Stage 4 is activated during emergencies to immediately limit water use to essential needs.<\/p>\n

\"ASurrey City Coun. Pardeep Kooner is seen on Nov. 19, 2025. (Sohrab Sandhu\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Surrey Coun. Pardeep Kooner defended her city’s decision at the special meeting.<\/p>\n

She said the city has restricted lawn watering, except for new homes or houses under construction with a permit, for a limited time.<\/p>\n

The city is also allowing residential pools to be filled and certain cooling measures like spray parks.<\/p>\n

Kooner said landscape and pressure washing businesses can operate with a handheld device.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to risk anybody’s livelihoods,” Kooner said.<\/p>\n

But other local politicians weren’t convinced. The board overwhelmingly voted to send a letter to Surrey city council requesting it align with Metro Vancouver’s water plan.<\/p>\n

\"MetroA Metro Vancouver’s board of directors meeting is pictured in 2022. Metro Vancouver’s water district board of directors met virtually on Friday to discuss water restrictions. (Ben Nelms\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Dobrovolny told the directors that Metro Van cannot force a municipality to comply with water restrictions unless there’s an emergency.<\/p>\n

Port Moody Mayor Meghan Lahti said things shouldn’t get to that point.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to get to the point where we’re in a state of emergency, and we can’t fight a fire \u2026 That’s not OK.”<\/p>\n

Some councillors suggested charging municipalities higher fees if a municipality doesn’t comply with water restrictions. Metro Van staff said they would investigate the idea.<\/p>\n

Surrey’s director of utilities David Matsubara told CBC News the city’s water use dropped in “a lot of areas” over the month of May.<\/p>\n

“We’ve held at Stage 2, as per our bylaw, and we’re sort of monitoring day to day to see if water use is changing demonstrably.”<\/p>\n

Matsubara said “threatening, punitive measures” don’t feel like they support good behaviour.<\/p>\n

A Surrey staff report from May<\/a> indicated that when Stage 2 water restrictions were announced “months earlier than expected,” the city received about 500 calls and emails from residents concerned about “recent investments in lawn care, new lawn and sod installation, and inability to get pools operational for the summer.”<\/p>\n

Metro Van says collaboration is key<\/p>\n

But the varying rules are causing confusion across the region, according to Linda Parkinson, director of policy planning in Metro Van’s water department.<\/p>\n

“And it’s creating frustration for business because there’s an un-level playing field,” she said.<\/p>\n

Parkinson outlined three reasons for the current Stage 3 water restrictions: a “much lower” than usual snowpack, a hot, dry summer forecast and a 100-year-old water main that is out of service for replacement, thereby putting more stress on the rest of the system as water demand increases in the summer.<\/p>\n

She noted that Metro Van’s single water system is “entirely interconnected,” which reinforces how important it is to work together to reduce water demand.<\/p>\n

Metro Vancouver chair and Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley warned against reducing water restrictions.<\/p>\n

“Remember, anything we do can have big consequences later on in the summer. And I don\u2019t think any of us want to be going to Stage 4, which is where we could be heading right now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-748603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}