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“The Partnership for Water Sustainability in its present form was birthed in 2003. We seized the moment and moved into a vacuum. Timing is everything. At our first inter-regional focus group session, held in Kelowna in November 2003, the vision and game plan for the waterbucket.ca website had crystalized. The Partnership embraced the model for storytelling that Joanne deVries pioneered with her FreshOutlook magazine in the 1990s. The rest is history, as they say. And why is this context important? Through storytelling, we pass on an understanding of THE WHY and THE WHAT,” stated Kim Stephens.

“The Partnership is the evolution of many initiatives around water sustainability in BC. The Partnership does its work under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan. This has led to growing collaboration regarding the role of water sustainability in shaping our communities. Water sustainability is a metaphor for managing the built environment sustainably. Incorporating the Partnership as a legal entity is a natural outcome. This demonstrated record of collaboration is our strength going forward,” stated Tim Pringle.

“Our partnerships & collaboration journey actually commenced some two decades before incorporation of the Partnership as a legal entity in November 2010. A group of like-minded and passionate individuals, including representatives of three levels of government, came together as a committee and created a ‘water roundtable’ that evolved over time into The Partnership. And what was the mission of this water roundtable? Champion a water-centric approach to use and conservation of land. Develop tools, resources and programs to support water-centric planning,” stated Kim Stephens.

The original plan was that Premier Gordon Campbell would launch the Partnership for Water Sustainability with an announcement at the inaugural BC Lands Award Gala. Arrangements had been completed and the gala was booked in the Premier’s schedule. His scheduled participation was a direct outcome of the Province and REFBC having made a long-term financial commitment to support our on-the-ground initiatives under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan. Unfortunately, Gordon Campbell resigned as Premier a couple of weeks before the event.

Bob Sandford, water champion and author, was the keynote speaker for the workshop that was built around the AGM. The event attracted representatives of 18 local governments from the Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island regions. “After a period of relative hydro-climatic stability, changes in the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere have resulted in the acceleration of the global hydrologic cycle with huge implications for every region of the world and every sector of the global economy,” stated Bob Sandford.

The Vancouver Sun’s Larry Pynn covered the 2015 Annual General Meeting. In his front-page report, Pynn wrote that “British Columbians are fooling themselves if they think feel-good market gardens are the solution to making the province less reliant on outside food services.”

“The vision for the website was, and is to provide a resource rich, highly interactive ‘destination location’ website for information and communication related to water sustainability in the Province of BC. To date, over a quarter million visitors have viewed and used the information and tools contained on the waterbucket.ca website. While this may not seem to be a large number compared to YouTube hits, over 90% of our visitors are using our site to access information that directly assist them in planning and facilitating change within their communities,” states Mike Tanner.

“Over the last five years water issues have become increasingly prominent within BC and beyond. The Partnership has been at the forefront of this understanding and has, through workshops, partnerships and through the development of educational material, provided practical information, shared with others, to address this concerning trend,” states Eric Bonham. “Climate change demands practical solutions at both the local and national level. The Partnership has established creative partnerships over the last five years with local governments to address this issue.”

“The reason I joined the Partnership for Water Sustainability in the early days of ‘incorporation’ was to be an advocate for educating local communities, land decision makers and the stewardship communities about the need to move from awareness to action. We need to both reduce the demand for water and protect stream health from the adverse consequences of land development practices. It was  through my work as a Provincial Fish Biologist that I became aware first-hand of the issue of water sustainability and watershed health,” stated Peter Law.

“The principles of success for the CAVI initiative and the PWSBC organization are similar. Hard-working individuals with like interests and visions, communicating with each other in a positive, no-pressure, educational way. Sharing challenges and successes and understanding how to achieve those successes has demonstrated what can be accomplished through partnerships and collaboration. Many of our initiatives and success stories have stemmed from the realization that what happens on the land does indeed matter and that a systems approach to watershed health does work. Let’s continue along this path,” states John Finnie.