Commentary: the Water Sustainability Act and the hybridized water rights system in British Columbia, Canada

British Columbia (BC)'s First-in-Time, First-in-Right (FITFIR) water rights system was significantly hybridized under the Water Sustainability Act (WSA) in 2016 to enhance water allocation flexibility while addressing concerns and criticisms of the traditional FITFIR system. This Commentary examines the legislative tools introduced in the WSA to facilitate this hybridization and identifies challenges arising from their incomplete implementation. The Commentary underscores current operational challenges that undermine sustainable water use, and advocates for government to address the lack of adequate resourcing and to prioritize implementation of the WSA tools. In addition, this Commentary highlights the vulnerabilities remaining under the WSA, including the jurisdictional gap resulting from unvested water and the authority for specific water uses without direct WSA oversight. The government's ability to deal effectively with recurring drought and to reduce the economic impacts of limited water supplies in BC depends on addressing these challenges and vulnerabilities; water-related agreements and arrangements with Indigenous nations are also directly impacted.