“After the act was passed by the government, the BC Liberal government, in 2016, there was six years of notices, public press releases, discussions with professional organizations, in some cases even personal contact with water users to encourage them to register,” Ralston said, adding that there won’t be enforcement at this point against anyone who has registered but not yet received a licence.

Well, I for one never heard about this.

One thing they could have done is linked it directly to ALR property taxes. That would have ensured most people impacted would be aware.

For those not on ALR, link it to the business license. This would have required getting cooperation from all municipalities, but surely that’s possible.

Then you’re only left with people without a business license who aren’t in the ALR: that’s a pretty small group that could mostly be addressed directly.