British Columbia

Much of the Sumas Prairie was once a shallow, freshwater lake until the B.C. government drained it in the 1920s, converting it into agricultural land for settlers and displacing the Sumas First Nation.

The report says buying back the estimated 1,375 properties on the lakebed is a solution that is projected to cost around $1 billion, less than half of the estimated $2.4 billion cost of repairing dikes and installing a new pump station.