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“We will elaborate on what it will take to obtain food security for Vancouver Island. How much land would we need, and how much needs to be irrigated to achieve that level of production. Is it even possible? The Agriculture Land Use Inventory and the Agriculture Water Demand Model provide the Province and local governments with an informed and reliable basis for generating answers to these questions. The land use inventory is one of the data inputs for the Agriculture Water Demand Model. On the east coast of Vancouver Island, three local governments are leading by example through their participation in this program, namely: Cowichan Valley Regional District, Comox Valley Regional District and the Regional District of Nanaimo,” states Ted van der Gulik.

“The phrase Shifting Baseline describes an incremental eroding of standards. This results from each new generation lacking knowledge of the historical, and presumably more natural, condition of the environment. Therefore, each generation defines what is ‘natural’ or ‘normal’ according to current conditions and their personal experiences,” explains Dr. Daniel Pauly.

“I can still remember the day that the City of Surrey’s Planning General Manager, Murray Dinwoodie, came into my office in 2005. He said that Chuck Gale was looking for a new person to chair the Green Infrastructure Partnership (GIP)Murray-Dinwoodie_2013_120p and would I be prepared to step in. It was just what I did not need at the time, an extra job to do,” recalls Paul Ham. “Chairing the Partnership made me realize how many new ideas in sustainable servicing were being tried out around the Region and the Province. To spread the word on what was happening in the region a number of one day seminar and field demonstration events were held under the banner of the Showcasing Green Infrastructure Innovation Series.”

“Rain gardens have ecological importance, and are a standard requirement for all developments in the City of North Vancouver. In addition, all of our major transportation projects incorporate rain gardens. A single rain garden will not make a material difference to conditions in our creeks. But 1000 rain gardens would be a different story. These will take time to implement. The process will be incremental,” states Mayor Darrell Mussatto.