Convening for Action in British Columbia

“The Forum program was designed for local government, and was built around the ‘infrastructure liability’ theme. Fiscal constraints provide a driver for a change in the way local governments plan, finance, implement, and over time replace infrastructure,” reports John Finnie.

“We wished to replicate our ‘convening for action’ approach on Vancouver Island in another region of the province. We decided that the southern interior would be a good choice. BC Hydro Power Smart provided financial support and hosted an exploratory session in Kamloops. ” explains Tim Pringle.

“The Concept Development Session in September 2011 served as an inaugural meeting of individuals with a role in water and land management. The session purpose was to determine the viability of a regional team approach to water sustainability within the region ,” explains Ron Smith.

“We describe our approach to sharing and learning as ‘structured flexibility’. This means we are organized and have an end in mind, yet we go with the flow to achieve an outcome. The conversational approach helps energize the room and produce Ah-Ha Moments,” explains Kim Stephens.

“A decade ago, the Province made a conscious decision to follow an educational rather than prescriptive path to change practices for the use and conservation of land and water. Practical research and new tools are now enabling engineers, planners and other disciplines to do business differently. It is about turning the whole game around to collaborate as regional teams and design with nature,” stated Tim Pringle.

“We spent the last half a century trying to control runoff with dikes, storm sewers, curbs and gutters. Now, increased development and increased storm intensity from climate change are increasing peak flows and altering the rules of the game. We can’t engineer away our problems fast enough, and have to look at other, lower impact solutions. This workshop was held to highlight the importance of rainwater management to climate change adaptation and to showcase examples from other areas that could be applied to the Okanagan,” states Anna Warwick Sears.

Comox Valley local governments are aligning efforts, building leadership capacity and striving for consistency. “We have moved beyond continuing education solely for the purpose of professional development. We are exploring what implementation of regional policy means on the ground,” states Glenn Westendorp. “All those involved in land development have a role to play in achieving Sustainable Service Delivery. The players include land use and infrastructure professionals.”

“Recently, the Partnership made a key decision to create a new front page to the waterbucket.ca website to help strengthen our identity, support forward looking initiatives that tackle some of the most important issues about water sustainability, and to realize exciting new opportunities,” reports Mike Tanner.

“CAVI is an innovative and precedent-setting approach to partnerships and collaboration that brings Together those who plan and regulate land use, those who build and those who provide the legislative framework,” wrote Eric Bonham. “Vancouver Island is the pilot region for rollout of ‘Beyond the Guidebook: The New Business As Usual’ with the adoption of an innovative approach to practitioner education. This provincial initiative builds on the foundation provided by ‘Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia’, published in 2002, and incorporates further lessons learned over the past 6 years.”

At each of three events, Eric Bonham explained how CAVI got started and provided insight as to why this bottom-up approach is resonating with local government and beyond. The goal is to promote networking, inform and educate practitioners, and help local governments move ‘from awareness to action’ in doing business differently.