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Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative

Towards a Watershed Health Legacy: A Description of the Plan for Inter-Regional Collaboration through 2017


“The unfunded ‘infrastructure liability’ is a driver for local governments to consider longevity, focus on what happens after developers hand-off municipal infrastructure, get it right at the front-end, and prepare for the future. Climate change is part of the liability equation – adaptation has level-of-service implications for infrastructure,” stated Derek Richmond, CAVI Chair.

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Achieving the Cascading Objectives for Inter-Regional Collaboration would create a Watershed Health Legacy in the Georgia Basin


“Accepted ‘standards of practice’ – especially those for engineering, planning and finance – influence the form and function of the Built Environment. Implementing green infrastructure, turning the clock back, shifting the ecological baseline, and creating a watershed legacy will ultimately depend on the nature of changes in standards of practice,” states Kim Stephens.

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In 1995, the University of BC’s Dr. Daniel Pauly coined the phrase "Shifting Baseline Syndrome" to explain why environmental degradation is incremental


“Every generation will use the images that they got at the beginning of their conscious lives as a standard and will extrapolate forward. And the difference then, they perceive as a loss. But they don’t perceive what happened before as a loss. You can have a succession of changes. At the end you want to sustain miserable leftovers. And the question is, why do people accept this?,” stated Daniel Pauly.

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Inter-Regional Education Initiative: Partnership updated Metro Vancouver elected representatives in May 2014


According to Mayor Darrell Mussatto, Chair of the Metro Vancouver Utilities Committee, the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative will help Metro Vancouver fulfil specific actions in the region’s Integrated Liquid Waste & Resource Management Plan regarding performance standards, codes of practice, certification and guidelines for on-site rainwater management.

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Inter-Regional Collaboration: Partnership for Water Sustainability updated members of Cowichan Valley Regional Board in April 2014


“So, why collaboration? Here are the key words – affordable and effective. This is what it is all about. Money is not unlimited,” emphasized Kim Stephens. “So what is the goal of collaboration? We are talking about standards of practice, whether those practices be engineering or planning. They have to be affordable and effective. Where we are trying to get to is a healthy watershed with healthy streams.”

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Inter-Regional Education Initiative: Province hosts "Springboard Session" for 2014 Collaboration Series


Glen Brown explained what his Ministry means when it urges local governments to view watersheds through a Sustainable Service Delivery lens. “This builds on the principles of Asset Management. It is going to be a component, and a requirement, under the next Gas Tax Grant Program. This is where we will find traction in moving Sustainable Service Delivery forward,” he said.

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"Bowker Creek Blueprint is a provincial game-changer," Kim Stephens informs Capital Region elected representatives


“Bowker Creek is provincially significant and precedent-setting. It is also inspirational. In my 40-year career as a professional engineer, there is nothing that equals it. And the reason it is so important is that it gave the rest of us a vision of what can be. The experience of what this region has done is informing others, from Metro Vancouver all the way up to the Comox Valley,” stated Kim Stephens.

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Capital Regional District: Partnership for Water Sustainability updates elected representatives about inter-regional collaboration


“We know the importance of watersheds, not only for producing our own water, but also for sustainability of the environment generally.Speaking as one of the communities involved in the collaborative effort for Bowker, I can attest for the need for collaboration in these kinds of situations; and also the success that can come out of collaborative efforts,” stated Nils Jensen.

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Inter-Regional Education Initiative: Overview of 2014 Work Plan


“The IREI supports implementation of integrated and watershed-based community planning processes on the east coast of Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland. A desired outcome of inter-regional collaboration is accelerated implementation of affordable and effective watershed sustainability and green infrastructure practices,” states Derek Richmond

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