The 2009 Surrey Forum is the first step in advancing a regional team approach to rainwater management and green infrastructure that will align local actions in Metro Vancouver with provincial goals as stated in “Living Water Smart, BC’s Water Plan”.
“The audience comprised a mix of Surrey staff from different departments, developers and designers who do work in Surrey, representatives from a large number of Metro Vancouver municipalities, and provincial regulators. At the end of the day, we achieved our stated objective of starting a dialogue between policy-makers and project implementers,” reports Kim Stephens.
“A key message in Living Water Smart is that green development makes sense. New thinking about development leads to new benefits. These include more green spaces, more water and fish in the streams, improved community vitality, reduced demand for water, and reduced expenditure on infrastructure,” stated Lynn Kriwoken.
“When we develop or redevelop land, our starting point should be: What do we want our neighbourhoods look like? The built-form determines what our options may be for capturing rain where it falls. So we need to look at ways to provide more green space that can serve more than one purpose,” states Jim Dumont.
“On the matter of implementing on-site rainfall capture, there is a fundamental difference between Surrey and other Metro Vancouver municipalities. Surrey has moved beyond pilot projects; we are moving to a broader watershed objectives approach to capturing rain where it falls to protect our streams,” stated Remi Dube.
“The Surrey Forum is an opportunity for Metro Vancouver participants to explore the responsibility theme. Each party in the process has a responsibility. So, we envision a discussion of the respective responsibilities involved in implementing a vision. In this way, we hope to learn what works well and what could work better,” states Susan Rutherford.
“The Forum will focus on the legal and policy tools and processes that have been both hindrances to green infrastructure implementation, and those that have assisted… or would assist… going forward,” states Ted van der Gulik.
“The Forum is designed to start a dialogue between policy-makers and project implementers. We will explore how policy and legal tools can help developers, regulators and designers collaborate to ensure responsible outcomes,” states Vincent Lalonde.
“It is the view of the Metro Vancouver Reference Panel that the effective implementation of the Canada-wide Strategy not only creates an obligation on the part of the senior governments to step up to the plate and fulfill their social and environmental responsibilities, it also creates an obligation to support communities that believe it is imperative to improve sewage treatment as soon as possible,” stated Christianne Wilhelmson.
“Embracing a guiding framework will help ensure a flexible and adaptable approach to regional sewage treatment that strives for continuous improvement over time,” stated Simon Poole.
