Living Water Smart & Green Communities Initiative introduced to Southern Interior audience at Kamloops Workshop
Note to Reader:
In September 2009, the Kamloops chapter of the Planning Institute of BC (PIBC) and Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (CMHC) co-hosted a workshop that attracted planners from four regional districts in the Southern Interior, including: Thompson-Nicola Regional District, Central Okanagan Regional District, Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, and Columbia-Shuswap Regional District. The audience of approximately 40 also included muncipal representatives who travelled from as far afield as Revelstoke and Lake Country.
Sustainable Planning and Development for Small Communities
“When it comes to planning and building for the future, small communities face their own unique challenges. CMHC’s comprehensive workshop, Sustainable Planning and Development for Small Communities, presents practical approaches to addressing long-term infrastructure needs,” states Lance Jacubec, CMHC Senior Consultant for Research and Information Transfer.
“The Kamloops workshop used the expertise of two featured speakers….Kim Stephens and Stephen Hall…. to discuss the topics of water management, housing, and community development through a lens that is appropriate to planners and administrators in both a municipal and regional context.”
Water Management – A Practitioner’s Perspective
Kim Stephens, Program Coordinator for the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia, is an experienced engineer-planner with over 35 years experience related to infrastructure policy, master planning and project delivery.
“The Kamloops Workshop was a great outreach and educational opportunity to spread the word to Interior communities regarding two provincial programs – Living Water Smart, BC’s Water Plan, and the Green Communities Initiative. As the Action Plan Coordinator, I spoke on behalf of two Ministries – Environment, and Community & Rural Development.”
“My segment covered the best part of two hours, and turned into a town hall type of session. I had organized my material in three parts, with the first 10 minutes a fast-paced and high-level introduction to the ‘regional team approach’ to warm up the audience and set the tone for interaction.”
“After 10 minutes it was apparent that the audience was energized and engaged – the questions and comments were flowing thick and fast, and sharing of information was occurring spontaneously between participants. Next thing I knew an hour had passed, and we had not even started the second part of my presentation material. Fortunately, Lance Jacubec had allocated ample time to do everything. So the session worked out well.”
“Living Water Smart, BC’s Water Plan and the Green Communities Initiative must be viewed as an integrated package. Living Water Smart presents the vision, and the Green Communities Initiative provides enabling tools to achieve the vision. Together they represent a call to action,” Kim Stephens told participants at the Kamloops Workshop.
“Any time an engineer….even an engineer-planner…can connect with a group of planners, counts as a major accomplishment,” commented Lance Jacubec of CMHC afterwards. He organized and facilitated the workshop.
To Learn More:
To read the complete story about the workshop, click on Living Water Smart & Green Communities Initiative introduced to Southern Interior audience at Kamloops Workshop
Posted October 2009