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BC Water Sustainability Action Plan

    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


    “Twenty years ago, we went live with the waterbucket.ca website. 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. 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,” stated Mike Tanner.

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    A VISION WITH A TASK IS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD: “Honouring of Jody Watson with the 2023 Watershed Moments Award is both timely and a great example how one individual with a long term vision and determination can make a difference,” stated Eric Bonham at the Partnership for Water Sustainability Forum held in Nanaimo (October 2023)


    “Early in her career, Jody Watson realized the importance and value of local government-community relationships built upon mutual trust, respect and common purpose. In her role as Supervisor of Environmental Initiatives, Jody has emphasized collaboration and teamwork at every opportunity. Creative community partnerships are being forged to address changing circumstances. An able communicator and mentor who ‘walks her talk’, Jody is both a visionary and a pragmatist, for the vision and task are equally important, and that is what makes the difference,” stated Eric Bonham.

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    2023 Annual Report for the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia


    “Growing a network breaks all the rules of conventional thinking. It is the antithesis of building an organization that has staff. Instead, the network aligns individuals and organizations to deliver results across organizational boundaries. However, a network does require a nucleus or ‘engine’ for legal and organizational continuity. The Partnership for Water Sustainability serves that function for our local government partners within the Georgia Basin bioregion. Ensuring continuity of the network comes down to how organizations continue WITHIN the network,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    2022 Annual Report for the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia


    “A Partnership strength is the real-world experience we bring because of our multiple initiatives under Living Water Smart Actions. Under that vision, various building blocks processes have evolved over the decades. The Watershed Security Strategy and Fund, an initiative of the current provincial government, is the obvious mechanism to revisit, understand, learn from, and leverage past successes in the building blocks continuum. We have tools to help do the job. We can achieve better stewardship of BC’s water resources for present and future generations,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    Lifetime Member – Brian Carruthers (inducted in 2022)


    “I had a real incentive to come to the Cowichan Valley Regional District in 2014 because water was the primary focus. The region was in the midst of a watershed governance study. It was looking at how the CVRD could take a more active role in watershed governance. The Board Chair and I did tours of First Nations communities and met with their chiefs and councils around the intent of this initiative and what would their interest be. We realized that this was bigger than we could take on at that time. Instead, we turned our attention to the Drinking Water & Watershed Protection (DWWP) model for a regional service,” stated Brian Carruthers.

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    CHAMPION SUPPORTER: recognition of the City of Kelowna (May 2022)


    “On behalf of Council, thank you to the Partnership for the Champion Supporter recognition honouring the great work done by City of Kelowna staff in supporting you! I am blessed with the best municipal staff in the country and this is another example of that,” stated Mayor Colin Basran. Most recently, the City of Kelowna stepped up to be in the first cohort of local government partners to operationalize the BC Landscape Water Calculator in three regions (Okanagan, Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island).

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    2021 Annual Report for the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia


    “Looking back, 2021 is an extraordinary year of accomplishment for the Partnership. We continued to elevate our game and in so doing demonstrated what is possible. We provided leadership for a range of initiatives of provincial importance. Successes were achieved through the power of collaborative leadership. The process involves bringing the right people together in constructive ways with good information, such that they create authentic visions and strategies for addressing the shared concerns of their organizations and communities,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    WATCH THE VIDEO: “The Partnership for Water Sustainability has its roots in government – provincial, federal, and most importantly, local government. Over three decades, the Partnership has evolved – from a technical committee in the 1990s,to a water roundtable in the first decade of the 2000s, to a legal entity in 2010,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership Executive Director, in his remarks as part of the Bowen Island Climate Conversation (July 2021)


    “Incorporation of the Partnership for Water Sustainability as a non-profit society allows us to carry on the Living Water Smart mission. We are growing a network, not building an organization. In terms of my professional career as a water resource engineer and planner, I have been in the right place at the right time, and with the right people. In a nutshell, my responsibilities revolve around delivering the Water Sustainability Action Plan through partnerships and collaboration, through a local government network,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    AT A GLANCE: “We explain what the reader needs to know in order to have a sense of how the Partnership originated, who we are, and why we do what do in developing tools and resources, delivering programs and facilitating peer-based education under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan,” stated Ray Fung, Partnership Director


    “Nested within ‘Living Water Smart, BC’s Water Plan’, the main goal of the Water Sustainability Action Plan is to encourage province-wide implementation of fully integrated water sustainability policies, plans and programs,” stated Ray Fung. “The Action Plan recognizes that the greatest impact on water, land and water resources occurs through our individual values, choices and behaviour. The Action Plan promotes and facilitates sustainable approaches to water use, land use and water resource management at all levels – from the province to the household; and in all sectors.”

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    COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP: “The Partnership’s Board of Directors is a team of community-minded and mission-focused elders. These individuals bring Experience, Knowledge and Wisdom to the Partnership’s over-arching goal of inter-generational collaboration,” says Derek Richmond, Founding Member and Secretary


    “Although the Partnership is a non-for-profit legal entity, we are not building a conventional organization. The Board of Directors is guided by a vision for creating a collaborative network. The difference in visions is fundamental. The network is a foundation piece for succession planning. The network is the ultimate source of strength of the Partnership because the network holds the key to intergenerational collaboration. It is how we build bridges of understanding and pass the baton from the past to the present and future,” states Derek Richmond.

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