Thank you so much for the question.
I don't know about the actual decision on the licensing, but as other researchers have said, our understanding of groundwater in Canada and in British Columbia is pretty minimal. Do we know what the extraction limits are for the aquifers? We don't. Do we know why water levels are falling? Well, maybe.
I think where the federal government can really give us a hand is in increasing scientific and monitoring infrastructure and helping us with things like sustainability indicators.