Convening for Action in British Columbia

CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “Many books have been written about individual communities and industries around the great waterway, but none have examined the Georgia Basin region as a geographical unit with its own dynamic systems, which can best be understood as an interrelated whole,” Dr. Howard Macdonald Stewart, author of Views of the Salish Sea

April 1, 2025 - Posted in Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation, Convening for Action in Lower Mainland

Note to Reader:

Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. Stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway, Editor’s Perspective, and the Story Behind the Story (reproduced below).

The edition published on April 1, 2025 is an introduction to and a high-level overview of Part A of the Chronicle of Green Infrastructure in Metro Vancouver from 1994 through 2024. The 73-page Part A is included as an attachment. It is a sweeping narrative that brings to life an era.

source: The Georgia Basin Initiative, 1994 brochure

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Livability of Southwest BC at a crossroads, again

Part A is dedicated to the shared legacy of three inspirational leaders who ran with the vision for the Georgia Basin Initiative: Creating a Sustainable Future and gave it life three decades ago.

Without the passion and commitment of Darlene Marzari, Joan Sawicki and Erik Karlsen, the call for action in the 1993 report by the BC Round Table on the Environment and the Economy may not have gone anywhere. They made a difference and they changed history in the Georgia Basin.

To see ahead one must learn to look back

Never has storytelling been more important than it is today. And that is because knowledge and memory are being lost at an alarming rate. A look into the future by Jay Bradley in 2007 has proven prescient in foreshadowing what is happening in the post-COVID era.

Jay Bradley’s quote nails the nub of one of the challenges of our time. And that is, loss of continuity is happening just when continuity of understanding is needed most.

Will it be business as usual or wise use?

The Georgia Basin links two nations and includes three bodies collectively known as the Salish Sea. “It is not mere coincidence that two-thirds of the population of British Columbia occupies lands bordering its great inland sea,” wrote Howard Macdonald Stewart in his book titled Views of the Salish Sea: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Change around the Strait of Georgia.

In Views of the Salish Sea, Howard Macdonald Stewart documents that, too often in his career as an advisor to the United Nations, he experienced a vital paradise that had become an environmental desert due to ‘business as usual’ decisions.

Concerned that many past decisions made in the Georgia Basin were contributing to its degradation, he wrote his text to help readers better understand these past decisions and their consequences for the evolving future of the Georgia Basin.

Focus on” Context, Intent and Results”

“The region’s continued health and sustainability demands that we treat it as one system, not as a composite of separate and jurisdictionally distinct entities.” – from page 14, Georgia Basin Initiative: Creating a Sustainable Future, 1993.

“As Parliamentary Secretary or the Georgia Basin Initiative, I had a visionary document and strong personal support from Minister Marzari at the top ” recalls Joan Sawicki. “And I had Erik Karlsen’s on-the-ground connections with Basin communities and their issues. All I had to do was run with it. And that’s what we did!.”

“Erik Karlsen not only had the passion and understanding for this stuff and was way ahead of his time, but he also had an unparalleled network of connection with Georgia Basin communities – and, most importantly, a high degree of trust with those communities.”

“Sustainable refers to attaining certain conditions in the context of social, economic and environmental considerations. Resilient in a biological sense is primarily the ability for an ecosystem to recover from an intervention,” wrote Erik Karlsen in 2015.

Build consensus around the need for action

“The Province passed the Regional Growth Strategies Act in 1994. It was then my job to implement regional growth management. The government subsequently combined Regional Growth Strategies and the Georgia Basin Initiative into one operation so that Erik Karlsen wound up working for me, ” recalls Dale Wall, former Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs.

Erik Karlsen was a sessional lecturer at Royal Roads University. He taught change management and was the éminence grise behind the guiding philosophy that drives the Partnership for Water Sustainability. His core message was one of hope and determination. Erik Karlsen understood the power of story!

To Learn More:

Waterbucket eNews stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway, Editor’s Perspective, and the Story Behind the Story. To read the complete 3-part storyline, download a copy of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Livability of Southwest BC at a crossroads, again. The document is complete with the 69-page Part A of the Green Infrastructure Chronicle as an attachment.