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“This award is really recognition of our staff, in particular our CAO, and the work that he and others have done in this very important area. The current Council was elected in 2018 and we are continually being educated in terms of natural assets and natural assets management. It is a true feather in the cap of the Town of Gibsons that we are getting recognition outside the community. At some point, I hope that (the Town’s accomplishments) will be recognized as strongly within the community. There is still work to be done in that area,” stated Mayor Bill Beamish.

“Two school frontages abut the stream. They account for 55% of the channel length through the area developed prior to streamside regulation. Thus, culvert daylighting plus channel realignment through school lands represent the single, most favourable opportunity to achieve stream restoration in the context of redevelopment. Stream restoration would enable the school district to fulfill a compelling social obligation, and that is, to recognize its responsibility to support maintenance and management of Kilmer Creek as a natural commons,” stated Tim Pringle.

“The ‘pioneering’ days of Delta’s rain garden program were a great time of trial and error. We enjoyed the creative challenges of figuring out ways to work around underground utilities, move water across sidewalks and down slopes, deal with unexpected high water tables and poor drainage, and predict which plants would survive the particular site conditions of each garden. The most interesting part of designing rain gardens was that every single garden was unique to the site, so there were no cookie-cutter designs. We always got to try something new,” stated Sarah Howie.

“In our resiliency framework, Emergency Planning is identified as an area of focus and includes recommendations to update programs to support neighbourhood preparedness to deal with natural or human-induced disasters. We had barely identified that as an action, and here we are dealing with an extremely serious situation, affecting everything and everyone we know. I wanted to share some thoughts about what I have observed in terms of our local government’s response to this situation,” stated Emanuel Machado.

Motivated by a shared vision that “the future is here, NOW” for restoration of the aquatic environment in Burrard Inlet, three engineers with distinguished careers have been passionate and relentless in collaborating as an interdisciplinary team to convince the Metro Vancouver Regional District to re-think the treatment components for the new Lions Gate Treatment Plant. The decision to add tertiary treatment was announced in September 2019. “Now, there is no looking back…. ’elders power, combining mind and action’,” stated Don Mavinic.

“Throughout BC, there is an amazing network of volunteer groups working to protect riparian habitat, monitor salmonid health and support hatcheries to enhance local salmonid populations. Each group has stories to share about how their members participate as citizen scientists in efforts to support this iconic species,” states Glen Parker. “Other projects focus on education and awareness-building. About once a year we host a 1-day workshop for Streamkeepers and other related groups.”

The IREI is a major undertaking by the Partnership for Water Sustainability, and the support of Mayor Darrell Mussatto over the past decade ranks as a key ingredient in the success of the IREI program. The process of reporting out regularly to the Utilities Committee raised the profile of the IREI program, lending credibility to this over-arching educational goal: Build capacity within local government to implement a whole-system, water balance approach.

“Once we know what we want our watersheds and neighbourhoods to look like, the next step is to decide what the tools are that will get us there. All of us need to understand and care about the goal if we are to create the future that we all want,” stated Vincent Lalonde.

“As biological creatures, we depend on natural capital and its ecosystem services to sustain the health and well-being of our families and communities. But these benefits are often taken for granted by decision-makers on land-use issues, such as municipal zoning, because we have such a poor understanding of what they are and what they’re truly worth,” stated Dr. Faisal Moola, Science Director of the Suzuki Foundation.

Still Creek is a highly urbanized watershed with a population of over 100,000 residents, and drains from the City of Vancouver into the City of Burnaby. “To see salmon return to Still Creek after so many decades has been incredibly exciting, especially given that just a few decades ago, this stream was widely viewed as one of Canada’s most polluted waterways. Quite simply, the events that have unfolded on Still Creek highlight the fact that we should never give up on any river,” states Mark Angelo.