Convening for Action in British Columbia

“Convening for Action is a provincial initiative that supports innovation on-the-ground. From the perspective of those leading and/or participating in regional programs, having this community-of-interest provides the opportunity to ‘tell our story’ and ‘record our history’ as a work-in-progress,” states Ray Fung. “It will turn ideas into action by building capacity and understanding regarding integration of long-term, strategic planning and the implementation of physical infrastructure.”

“Future planners, engineers, scientists, politicians and citizens alike will be called upon to demonstrate both vision and pragmatism, working as a team towards consensus, commitment and collaboration for the common good. Such collaboration is essential and must cross all political and community boundaries given that climate change is no respecter of such creations. The Partnership has accepted this challenge and its implementation,” stated Eric Bonham.

In his 1969 book, Design With Nature, Ian McHarg pioneered the concept of environmental planning. “So, I commend Design with Nature to your sympathetic consideration. The title contains a gradient of meaning. It can be interpreted as simply descriptive of a planning method, deferential to places and peoples, it can invoke the Grand Design, it can emphasize the conjunction with and, finally it can be read as an imperative. DESIGN WITH NATURE!,” wrote Ian McHarg.

“My role is that of a regional coordinator. I coordinate groups and distribute the training and help coordinate people to actually do the monitoring. The idea is that you could have other regional coordinators around the province or anywhere applying this model that we have created. We hope to be able to expand the network in the future. But it is taking longer than we thought it would. It is an adaptive approach to see what works, learn the lessons, and then figure out how to overcome challenges that we have experienced along the way,” stated Ally Badger.

“As Parliamentary Secretary, I had a visionary document and strong personal support from Minister Marzari at the top,” stated 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! Most of my work was just going out to communities. We were a very small staff – Judith Cullington, Charmaine Hall, and Brent Mueller. We were a small group but, with Erik’s energy and access to just about everybody everywhere, he created the illusion of something much larger.”

Erik Karlsen had a remarkable impact on the shape of BC communities. For a generation of elected representatives, he was a familiar face in the local government setting. Erik Karlsen had an unparalleled network of connection with Georgia Basin communities – and most importantly, a high degree of trust with those communities. The legacy of Erik Karlsen is rippling through time through the work of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in leading the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative, successor to the Georgia Basin Initiative.

“Living Water Smart was a government commitment plan, 17 years ago with 50 commitments signed off by the government of the day. Many public servants have worked over many years to deliver on those commitments. But government administrations change, ministers change, priorities change, budgets change. That process carries on its own world. What matters is that the Living Water Smart story has stood the test of time and continues to resonate. Everybody pulled a piece of yarn out of that plan and knit a sweater,” stated Lynn Kriwoken.

The waterbucket.ca community is about networking and collaboration and waterbucket.ca provides a platform for learning from each other through sharing of success stories. The 20th anniversary of the waterbucket.ca website is an opportunity for celebration as well as reflection. “The waterbucket.ca website is providing reasons to have the conversations about ‘why change’.The resulting awareness of need will help us obtain the mandate to implement watershed-based land use planning,” stated Marvin Kamenz, Director of Community Planning with the Town of Comox.

“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.

“The 1992 Land Development Guidelines were about doing business differently because the status quo was not working. Municipalities were feeling the pressure to change course. So, we built on Puget Sound research and developed a watershed health rating system for our region. A trend projection from 1996 to 2036 demonstrated how the status quo would lead to a further region-wide decline in stream health. When we showed the picture of what this would look like to the Board members, they agreed that things had to change. Otherwise, things will get worse,” stated Robert Hicks.

“The Ecological Accounting Process is about the condition and financial value of municipal stream assets that supply ecological services, Urban streams are rarely managed as ecological systems or as municipal assets. When local governments obtain a financial value for streams as spatial assets, they can include them in their asset management plans and budgets. EAP gives municipalities the methodology and metrics that will let them add streams to their asset management strategy,” stated Tim Pringle.

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. He wrote the book to help readers better understand past decisions and their consequences. “The pressure on this ecologically vulnerable area will only intensify. Will we continue with Business as Usual or implement Wise Use in the Salish Sea? The first step is to understand the complex story of the region,” stated Macdonald.

“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. As Parliamentary Secretary for the Georgia Basin Initiative, I had a visionary document and strong personal support from Minister Marzari at the top. 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!. The Georgia Basin Initiative was successful because we had the right people at the right time,” stated Joan Sawicki.