Environmental Trends 2007

Population and Economic Activity

Overview - What is Happening?

Photo credit: Ministry of Transportation

As the number of people living in the province grows, pressure on the environment inevitably increases. Loss of natural habitat to development and agriculture, increasing demand for water, lumber and other resources, releasing pollutants and producing waste all have environmental impacts. Indicators described below show some of the pressures human activities have on the environment, while others show the effect of measures to manage and reduce these pressures.

Population concentrations in B.C.

The most rapid growth rates in B.C. have taken place in Metro Vancouver (formerly the Greater Vancouver Regional District), with the population density nearly doubling between 1976 and 2006. The Capital Regional District (Victoria), and the Nanaimo and Central Okanagan regional districts are the next fastest growing regions.

Population patterns reflect both the continual expansion of urban centres and a shift in the economic and industrial activity within the province. In a few rural regional districts, such as Skeena-Queen Charlotte, the population density has decreased slightly, probably linked to the downturn in natural resource industries.

Source: BCStats 2004

• In the Lower Mainland, policies at the regional level and provincial level (i.e., Agricultural Land Reserve) appear to have restrained suburban sprawl and slowed the loss of rural land. Between 1991 and 2001 the population of the region increased by 25 per cent, yet the area of land converted to urban uses only increased about 2 per cent.

• The Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) was put in place at the provincial level to protect agricultural land in 1974. Since then the total area, province-wide, has increased slightly (one per cent). Most of the movement of land in and out of the ALR has been “secondary capability land”, meaning that it’s suitable mainly for grazing or forage crops.

• As the level of sewage treatment increases, fewer contaminants are released into the environment. The proportion of the B.C. population with primary sewage treatment (35 per cent), secondary treatment (56 per cent) and tertiary treatment (8 per cent) has remained the same since 1999.

• Recycling and waste diversion programs have succeeded in keeping the total amount of disposed waste in B.C. today to about the same total volume as in 1990, despite the increasing population. The amount of waste disposed per person is still lower than it was in 1990, but there has been little change in the last decade.

• British Columbia has eight industry-led product stewardship programs. Seven established programs cover used oil, scrap tires, lead-acid batteries, beverage containers, medications, tree-marking and household paint, solvents and pesticides. To complement these programs the new Electronic Products Waste Program was put in place in 2007. Records from these established programs show that a large volume of hazardous and non-biodegradable products has been successfully diverted from landfills.

• Since 1981, the energy intensity for economic activity in B.C. has decreased. This equates to a lower environmental impact per unit of economic activity (GDP or gross domestic product), as it takes less energy to accomplish the same activity.

For detailed information, including graph data, see In-Depth Report [pdf].

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