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Bob Sandford, water champion and author, was the keynote speaker for the workshop that was built around the AGM. The event attracted representatives of 18 local governments from the Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island regions. “After a period of relative hydro-climatic stability, changes in the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere have resulted in the acceleration of the global hydrologic cycle with huge implications for every region of the world and every sector of the global economy,” stated Bob Sandford.

4TH IN A SERIES: “The waterbucket.ca website facilitates communication and integration across initiatives, regions, sectors and disciplines and links these in order to foster development and implementation of ‘Design with Nature’ practices. We share stories about how practitioners can reduce project (and environmental) costs by applying ‘Design with Nature’ principles. We are not sitting on our laurels. Waterbucket.ca allows our ‘convening for action’ partners to record their history even as they are creating it,” stated Mike Tanner.

3RD IN A SERIES: “When CAVI began, we established a goal that Vancouver Island would be well on its way to water sustainability by 2010. CAVI has moved forward significantly and successfully promoted the message of water sustainability by engaging governments, developers and the community in water-centric thinking, planning and development activities. Water sustainability is now a common thread in discussions and decisions about land development, water use and water conservation,” stated John Finnie.

2ND IN A SERIES: “For me, the watershed moment for the CAVI-Comox Valley Leadership Team occurred in 2010. The schedule for our regular learning-lunch series had been impacted by circumstances. The planned postponement of the series to early 2011 left us with the risk of losing momentum and interest; hence, we decided to host a developer-dialogue session. The ‘ah-ah’ moment for all parties lay in recognizing the importance of getting things done right at the front-end; and that by aligning collective efforts on a watershed scale, a regional response to (minimizing) infrastructure liability could be achieved,” stated Derek Richmond.

1ST IN A SERIES: “The drought, forest fires and floods that British Columbia experienced in 2003 created a teachable moment for change in the way we view water in this province. Over the past decade, we have showcased innovation, developed tools and provided training, and collaborated with local governments to develop talent and build capacity in the Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland regions. Water sustainability in the local government setting will be achieved by implementing green infrastructure policies and practices.” stated Ray Fung.

“We are building on the ‘collaborative model’ to implement Living Water Smart and Green Communities. We are doing this by delivering the Water Sustainability Action Plan through partnerships. Over the past decade, we have built a ‘partnership architecture’ that solidifies commitment to achieving practical outcomes under the umbrella of the Action Plan. It is the breadth of these partnerships that enables the Partnership for Water Sustainability to fulfil its integrating role and connect dots to links humans, watershed, landscape and buildings,” concludes Kim Stephens.