It looks like you wouldn't need to have a very large water tank if you really have 1,152 inches of precipitation a year in Vancouver Island like Wikipedia says.
A word of warning from
experience, it's better to use black plastic rather than the white because of algae growth.
It maybe better to use plastic pipe, although I don't know for sure. I remember that old turn of the century houses with rock water cisterns next to the house
would occasionally be struck by lightening and burn down.
Here is the math calculations to figure out how much water will come off your roof. I figured that a 1000 square foot roof with nearly 50 inches of rain a year
totals 40,000 gallons which means that you'd need to have a way to divert the excess water away from your house to prevent damaging it.