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STORYTELLING PLATFORM FOR ECOSYSTEM-BASED APPROACH TO LAND AND WATER USE: “To inspire improved practices in all aspects of land development and water resource management, waterbucket.ca provides universal access to stories of peer-based learning,” stated Mike Tanner, founding chair of the intergovernmental waterbucket.ca partnership

Note to Reader:

Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. Stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway, Editor’s Perspective and Context for Busy Reader, and the Story Behind the Story. 

The edition published on April 15, 2025 featured Mike Tanner, founding chair of the Waterbucket.ca Website Partnership and celebrated the 20th anniversary of the launch of waterbucket.ca in April 2025. The combination of waterbucket.ca and the Waterbucket eNews newsletter gives champions in the local government and stewardship sectors a platform and voice for telling their stories.

 

20th anniversary of waterbucket.ca, storytelling platform

“Twenty years ago this week, BC Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection Bill Barisoff made the announcement in Penticton the day we went live with the waterbucket.ca website. Keep in mind the context. In the early 2000s, websites were in their infancy,” recalls Mike Tanner.

 

Waterbucket.ca is one of six original elements of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for BC

“In 2004. a consortium of provincial and regional organizations and federal agencies came together under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan to form a partnership and provide funding to create waterbucket.ca. BC Hydro Power Smart provided the seed funding that set everything in motion.”

 

 

“Aside from the trust factor, the success of waterbucket.ca as a platform for peer-based learning has added to the credibility of the Partnership for Water Sustainability. How many websites are there like waterbucket.ca that have been able to do it for the length of time that we have, yet still remain current?”

 

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE / CONTEXT FOR BUSY READER

“The 20th anniversary of the waterbucket.ca website is an opportunity for celebration as well as reflection. An intergovernmental partnership funded development of waterbucket.ca to support an Ecosystem-Based Approach to land development and water use,” stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews Editor and Partnership Executive Director.

 

waterbucket.ca is a platform for an ecosystem-based approach

“With the passage of time, people either forget about or never knew what my generation or previous generations were trying to do and why. With that thought as context, a recent observation by legendary foreign affairs commentator Thomas Friedman resonates with me. What he stated in an interview is a reminder of the importance, relevance and power of storytelling.”

 

 

“Storytelling has never been more important. The combination of waterbucket.ca and Waterbucket eNews gives champions in the local government and stewardship sectors a voice for telling their stories. We have a communications platform and we share the stories behind their stories.”

 

Somebody had to put up the initial seed funding for waterbucket.ca and that is what Mike Tanner brought to mission possible

“Mike Tanner is the waterbucket.ca visionary. His leadership got the website off the ground and online within 12 months of the inaugural meeting of founding partners. He did the heavy lifting that brought together provincial ministries and so many others for a common purpose.”

“Somebody had to put up the initial seed funding to build support for the waterbucket.ca idea. And that is what I was able to bring from BC Hydro with a $5000 contribution from the Power Smart program,” recalls Mike Tanner.

 

“Twelve months after the inaugural meeting of the Waterbucket.ca Partnership, the announcement by Minister Barisoff formally launched the waterbucket.ca website. Lynn Kriwoken primed the Minister on the drive to Penticton,” continues Kim Stephens.

 

Influencing change through peer-based learning

“In 2006, I stepped into the breach as a volunteer to takeover from Joanne de Vries as Waterbucket Editor when we lost our Environment Canada funding after Stephen Harper became prime minister. This was supposed to be stop-gap but I got hooked and 20 years later the mission continues. And I love it!”

“Mike Tanner and I have been colleagues for over thirty years. Even so, the conversational interview for this story provided me with fresh insights into the crucial part his Power Smart experience played.”

 

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: waterbucket.ca, Storytelling Platform for an Ecosystem-Based Approach to Land and Water Use – a conversation with Mike Tanner 

The story behind the story of my conversational interview with Mike Tanner is structured in four parts. In Part One, he explains the importance of the Project Charter as the framework document that crystallized the shared vision for waterbucket.ca as an online magazine.

In Part Two, Mike Tanners shares his insights as to why waterbucket.ca is a trusted source of information. His reflections in Part Three recognize three individuals who injected timely energy and passion. Part Four closes with Mike’s thoughts on how waterbucket.ca has matured as a legacy resource.

PART ONE – waterbucket.ca partners had a vision for an online magazine and virtual community

“To prepare for this conversation, I went on a trip down memory lane and read the Project Charter that we adopted in 2004. Twenty year later, it makes for an interesting read. It is is a valuable historical document because it lays out what the waterbucket.ca partners set out to accomplish,” states Mike Tanner.

 

 

“We set out to further collective understanding, collaboration and the development and implementation of best practice.”

 

Context for waterbucket.ca editorial policy

 

“We have stayed true to those words. And over time, waterbucket.ca has exceeded expectations and become much more than what we thought it would be in 2004.”

“From day one, waterbucket.ca has been about providing information and a means of sharing the information of others, especially their success stories. That is what people are looking for, understand and value.”

 

 

“And, I am proud to state, we have never have asked for anything since the launch of the website. It is self-funded by the Partnership for the Water Sustainability as a public service. In the early years, we resisted any suggestions to commercialize it. The content is sustained by a volunteer effort.”

Just go to waterbucket.ca

“Twenty years later, it is also fascinating to read the record of the partnership forum in February 2005. This was a mere two months before we launched the website. Much of the discussion that day revolved around editorial policy to achieve what is laid out in the Project Charter.”

“Think of the website as a magazine, the record of meeting states, with the objective being to appeal to a readership slice so that we attract readers to the website. From the beginning, our target audiences were the government and stream stewardship sectors.”

 

 

“We have been true to that vision for a news magazine with the type of stories we publish. They are short, concise and allow readers to take a quick look at whether they are interested in reading further. The information we have has garnered the right people to stay on the website and delve into the stories.”

 

PART TWO – waterbucket.ca is a trusted source of information for a global audience

“With my marketing background at BC Hydro Power Smart, I realized the need to provide success stories. That is how you become successful in promoting a product. People are wary about trying different things. Providing them with success stories and factual information helps motivate them to implement some of the things that we talk about.”

 

Power of success stories to influence behaviour

“Part of my Power Smart thing is that I was successful with customers in implementing something that they did not quite understand about Power Smart. We were basically paying them to reduce using our product…electricity…which goes against every marketing concept.”

“The idea behind marketing has always been to get customers to pay to use more. And we were paying them to use less! We needed stories that would help them understand why they would be successful if they got involved with the Power Smart program and spent upfront to save money.”

“So we needed to be able to provide the story that company A did it and they achieved this energy saving. So, company B can do it too and also achieve this saving.”

 

waterbucket.ca content is in the public domain to provide universal access to information and resources

“We do not charge anything for people to access the Waterbucket.ca website or subscribe to the Waterbucket eNews newsletter. This goes against the principles of marketing – you provide something, you expect people to pay for it. But we do not. It is free!”

“Because we are not asking for anything, that goes to the level of trust that we have developed with our readers. We just want to provide information that people can see, understand and implement if possible.”

Michael Blackstock’s Blue Ecology is a prime example:

“That guiding philosophy has worked out well for us. With my marketing background, I needed to be sure that we would have content on there that would provide that level of trust for people to keep coming back to read our success stories and use the Partnership’s tools and resources.”

 

 

“If it is on waterbucket.ca, our readers know they can trust the story to be factual.”

PART THREE – Recognition of three individuals who injected timely passion and energy 

“Fiona Crofton was part of my original website working group. She brought passion and experience to the project. She made a huge contribution in developing a proof of concept for the website. This got us started.”

 

 

“We had to first attract people to waterbucket. ca and then we had to hold their interest. That certainly is what the Waterbucket eNews newsletter does as a companion platform. The stories we publish help do that. Compelling, that is what the website and newsletter have developed into!”

 

Why the waterbucket.ca embraced a storytelling approach to information sharing

“Storytelling is the way we share intergenerational knowledge, experience and wisdom. We learn through stories. This is how we pass on our oral history. This is why each and every edition of Waterbucket eNews is built around a conversational interview. Those stories are also posted on the website.”

 

 

“The storytelling approach would not be what it is without Kim Stephens. His unwavering dedication and commitment over two decades has made waterbucket.ca the success that it is. I cannot imagine anyone else being able to take the baton from Joanne and fulfil that storytelling role.”

PART FOUR – Closing reflections on 20 years of success in sharing the stories of champions

“The success of waterbucket.ca has outpaced anything that I thought we would achieve. The fact that we get people from other countries looking to us for information says so much about waterbucket.ca as a destination.”

 

“We understand that it has something to do with our heavy use of images. Every story we post has multiple images. We strive to match words and images so that waterbuckeet.ca stories are visually compelling. It must  also help that waterbucket.ca has been around for 20 years and counting.”

A living record of the “convening for action” history of Living Water Smart in British Columbia

“We profile those who do good work in the spirit of Living Water Smart. This is a big reason why waterbucket.ca has become the place where people go to look for information on water. We have the communication platform. We give the champions a voice.”

“The Partnership for Water Sustainability cannot do everything. If we can be the avenue to get the information of others out there, that is what we can do and have been doing. Our success comes from publishing our own stories plus the stories of other groups and individuals who are doing tremendous work for the common good.”

Growing the network of champions: 

“Through waterbucket.ca and the Waterbucket eNews newsletter, we are getting the stories of the Living Water Smart champions out there. This validates what they are doing.”

“That is a public service that the Partnership is able to do because we have an independent communications platform. The waterbucket.ca community is about networking and collaboration. And that is what we stated in the Project Charter in 2004.”

 

 

“And they can do it through waterbucket.ca! This serves our needs but it also serves their needs as well.”

waterbucket.ca has matured into a legacy resource

“In 2004, we were thinking about where we are now. We have adapted over the past 20 years. We have changed when we have had to. We have always gone where there is interest and energy. We have done all this and that is a big part of our continuing success.”

“When people say I saw it on waterbucket.ca, that is our ultimate measure and testament of success. Hopefully that will continue to be our story for another twenty years and beyond. That will be the legacy of the Waterbucket Website Partnership founders,” concludes Mike Tanner.

 

 

Living Water Smart in British Columbia Series

To download a copy of the foregoing resource as a PDF document for your records and/or sharing, click on Living Water Smart in British Columbia: waterbucket.ca, Storytelling Platform for an Ecosystem-Based Approach to Land and Water Use. The document is complete with the 69-page Part A of the Green Infrastructure Chronicle as an attachment.

DOWNLOAD A COPY:  https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/04/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Mike-Tanner-and-20-years-of-waterbucket.ca_2025.pdf