About the Partnership

banner

Tag:

living water smart bc

    GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: Dr. Fiona Crofton Wilde (1954-2025), a founding member of the BC Water Sustainability Committee


    Fiona Crofton was a life-long environmentalist. She was a leader, a teacher, a facilitator, and mentor, always pursuing her passion for a better and more sustainable world. A former professor in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of British Columbia, Fiona designed the 1st degree-credited course on sustainability globally. It was an award-winning, highly interactive, multi-discipline, web-based course in the engineering faculty but open to all students. She had developed similar courses for other universities and institutes, courses which continue to be popular and over-subscribed.

    Read Article

    2025 Mid-Year Report for the Partnership for Water Sustainability


    “The Partnership for Water Sustainability’s Mid-Year Report for 2025 provides an excellent understanding of our ‘philosophical’ rationale, how we function, and the collaborations and resources that make the Partnership effective. This is a baseline or landmark document,” stated Tim Pringle. The Partnership has adopted a storytelling approach to weave quotable quotes into a narrative that informs and engages readers about our mission, operational framework, ambassadors’ program and the array of initiatives that form the Partnership’s twin pillars of water sustainability.

    Read Article

    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.

    Read Article

    WATERSHED MOMENTS AWARD HONOURS ROB LAWRENCE: “In his time with the City of Nanaimo, Rob Lawrance grew the responsibilities of Environmental Planner to include community collaboration. He connected community stewardship passion with municipal capacity,” stated Paul Chapman, chair of the Watershed Moments Team


    Rob Lawrance grew up in the Cowichan Valley where he began his stewardship journey. In his time with the City of Nanaimo, he played a key role in almost every major waterway stewardship initiative in Nanaimo and connected community stewardship passion with municipal capacity. In 2021, Rob retired from the City and moved to Blaine, Washington. Tragically, he passed away in May 2022 while participating in the cyclocross leg of the Bellingham Ski to Sea relay race.

    Read Article

    KATE MILLER IS INAUGURAL RECIPIENT OF WATERSHED MOMENTS AWARD: “Cowichan Valley’s Kate Miller connects the dots between community and regional government water stewardship collaboration,” stated Paul Chapman, chair of the Watershed Moments Team (February 2023)


    “Kate Miller is a worthy inaugural recipient of this award. Kate connects the dots between community and regional government water stewardship collaboration. Kate also leads in inter-regional collaboration on water stewardship initiatives through her key participation on the Watershed Moments Team. Kate is an outstanding asset to her community and the community of water stewardship practice, and through collaboration and sharing of experience is growing a culture of water stewardship in the CVRD, across Vancouver Island and beyond,” stated Paul Chapman.

    Read Article

    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.

    Read Article

    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.

    Read Article

    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.

    Read Article

    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.

    Read Article

    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.

    Read Article

    Next Page >