A new University of British Columbia (UBC) research paper proposes it could be cheaper to allow the lakebed under the Sumas Prairie to swell to its banks.
It estimates it would cost $1 billion to acquire lakebed properties and allowing Sumas Lake to return versus the $2.4 billion cited to harden flood mitigation infrastructure and prevent a replay of the November 2021 flood in the Fraser Valley.
Author Riley Finn, a staff researcher at UBC’s Martin Conservation Decisions Lab, estimated the cost using B.C. property assessment data, overlayed with a map of the lakebed. The paper imagines a managed retreat using principles of Indigenous law developed by West Coast Environmental Law.
Mayor of Abbotsford Ross Siemens calls the proposal “ridiculous,” a position the executive director of the Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance, and a former Semá:th First Nation Coun. Murray Ned sees as ironic.
