Beyond the Guidebook 2015: Coquitlam's Melony Burton reflects on ‘Regional Team Approach – Tackling Big Goals Together'
Note to Reader:
Released In November 2015, Beyond the Guidebook 2015 is the third in a series that builds on Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia. Local government case study experience provides guidance for a collaborative approach that would achieve cascading objectives for Watershed Health, Resilient Rainwater Management and Sustainable Service Delivery
Convening for Action in the Metro Vancouver Region
Structured in four parts, ‘Beyond the Guidebook 2015’ is a progress report on how local governments on the east coast of Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland are ‘learning by doing’ to implement affordable and effective science-based practices.
Part D tells five regional stories, including that for the Metro Vancouver region. At the conclusion, Melony Burton, City of Coquitlam, provided her reflections in the form of an op-ed on the ‘regional team approach’. She is Chair of the Stormwater Interagency Liaison Group (SILG) which is made up of engineers from 21 Metro Vancouver municipalities, one treaty, and one electoral area.
Tackling Big Goals Together
“At SILG, we respectfully challenge each other’s ideas to come up with solutions that are far more robust than any one of us could develop in isolation. There are big, audacious visions and goals for reform in watershed health and stormwater management,” wrote Melony Burton.
“These have birthed daunting objectives that often progress at a painfully incremental pace. But it is important to acknowledge that many of these problems are complicated and have no quick fix. If they did, individual municipalities would have already addressed them. Collectively, we bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, ideas and organizational resources to the table to tackle big goals together. This is how the hard stuff gets done.”
To Learn More:
To download a copy of Beyond the Guidebook 2015, click on this link: https://waterbucket.ca/viw/files/2015/11/Beyond-Guidebook-2015_final_Nov.pdf
To download a copy of the complete op-ed by Melony Burton, click on ‘Regional Team Approach’ – Tackling Big Goals Together.
The document is structured in four parts to meet the information needs of different audiences.