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living water smart bc

    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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    CONTEXT AND HISTORY DO MATTER: “In 2003, we embarked on a journey with a commitment to document our history on waterbucket.ca even as we created it through collaboration and partnerships,” stated Kim Stephens, Executive Director


    “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.

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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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    CHAMPION SUPPORTER: recognition of the City of Abbotsford (October 2021)


    The City of Abbotsford was a founding member of the original inter-governmental Water Balance Model Partnership that morphed into the Partnership, a legal entity. Beginning in 2002, a succession of City staff has supported and/or contributed to the work of the Partnership. Most recently, the City of Abbotsford stepped up to be in the first cohort of local government partners to operationalize the BC Landscape Water Calculator in three regions. “The City is honoured that the Partnership for Water Sustainability has awarded the City Champion Supporter recognition. This reflects well on City staff who are doing good work,” stated Mayor Henry Braun.

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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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