Fear and frustration as floods put Abbotsford, B.C., farms under threat yet again

Rising waters in British Columbia's Fraser Valley have "not meant good news" for farmers in a part of the province still recovering from devastating floods four years ago, the province's agriculture minister said on Friday.

Lana Popham said the deluge that hit the Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford has already submerged a couple of poultry barns in the region.

With 68 farms under evacuation order and another 98 on alert, she said the situation is taking "an emotional toll."

At a news conference Friday afternoon, she said she could "hear that fear" in the voices of farmers she's spoken with.

Although Popham said the provincial government is working with farming associations to assist them as needed, there is frustration that a vital agricultural region is once again underwater —both from farmers and politicians alike.

Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens demanded action on flood mitigation on both sides of the border to deal with overflow from the Nooksack River in Washington state.

Siemens said the the safety of residents, farms, livestock and provincial food security are all "needlessly" at risk because of inaction since the 2021 flood.

"Unless they do something on the American side, there's not much we can do on our end," Siemens said.

It's a sentiment that poultry farmer Jeffrey Spitters shares.

"We have no control of it," he said on Thursday.

"Our hands are tied in the sense that we're at the mercy of what they decide to do."

He's been farming in the Sumas Prairie since 2013 and endured the 2021 floods.

Although his farm is built up high enough that it might not be affected by floodwaters, Spitters says that everyone raising livestock and growing crops in the Sumas Prairie may not be as lucky.

Brad Vis, the Conservative Party MP for Mission-Matsqui-Abbotsford, says the region received money to "build back what we had" after the 2021 floods — the most expensive natural disaster in the province's history.