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At the heart of building the capacity and resilience of community groups seeking to implement local watershed initiatives is the need for sustainable funding, “A long-standing, multi-year source of funding is critical to sustain watershed-related activities,” stated Steve Litke. A draft Business Proposal has been prepared by the Coquitlam River Watershed Roundtable and critiqued by leading experts in the fields of watershed governance and funding/delivery models.

The Roundtable is seeking to secure core funding to cover ongoing costs and to support the leverage of additional funds. “Diversity is key in sustainable financial planning, and we have already seen examples of what is possible when there is a strong partnership between, for example, a city and a watershed group. It is important to consider a blend of funding mechanisms. Resilience comes from diversity,” stated Zita Botelho.

“Our objective in hosting the workshop was to raise awareness about ways to better manage rainwater runoff, maintain stream health and support watershed-based plans. The workshop introduced community members to a vision for Sustainable Watershed Systems and what it means to value watersheds as infrastructure elements,” stated Barbara Frisken. “Breakout groups then identified possible community actions that can support a sustained focus on improving watersheds.”

“In the Nanaimo region, our parcel tax function provides us with a reliable long-term funding source to enable our work related to water sustainability education/outreach, data-collection/monitoring, and planning/policy development for our region,” stated Julie Pisani. “This in turn magnetizes other partners and resources, to collaborate on watershed initiatives with us, as we are recognized as an equipped, dependable and long-term player.”

“Across this province there is a movement taking place within the stewardship sector. The key is how the stewardship sector partners with local government,” stated Kim Stephens. “An informed stewardship sector may prove to be the difference-maker that accelerates implementation of the whole-system, water balance approach. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone really understood what it means to think and act like a watershed.”

The new Water Sustainability Act opens the door to potential opportunities to support local watershed governance initiatives. “With provisions including the potential for innovative water sustainability plans, a new ability to formally delegate decision-making under the Act, and enhanced protections for environmental flows,” stated Rosie Simms.

The Roundtable has turned its attention to building the capacity and resilience necessary to see the watershed plan through implementation and beyond. “One way to enhance the capacity of local governments to assess impacts is to work collaboratively, with other local governments, provincial and federal governments, government agencies, First Nations, the academic community and professional associations,” stated Deborah Carlson.

“As development of the watershed plan progressed, the challenge to achieve sustainable long-term funding to ensure effective implementation of the plan was identified as a significant pressure,” stated Marni Turek. “The Roundtable is now poised to identify a strategy to increase capacity and resilience through evaluating sustainable funding mechanisms and building peer-to-peer knowledge sharing opportunities to expand the reach of this work.”

The watershed plan recognizes important linkages between ecosystem health and human well-being, and advances ecosystem-based thinking and planning across multiple jurisdictions of the Coquitlam River watershed. “Evolving from a climate of conflict to a state of collaboration was a huge success on its own, and the benefits of a common vision and the collaborative, consensus-based approach empowered the Roundtable,” stated Margaret Birch.

Aligned by a common vision of a healthy watershed, the Roundtable began developing the watershed plan following an adaptive management model known as the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation. “Integrating the important linkages between ecosystem health and human well-being into decision making is a critical step in planning for watershed health. The foundations for this have been woven into the fabric of the watershed plan,” stated Craig Orr.