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The election of Donald Trump to the US presidency opened a Pandora’s box. The cascading impact of his uncivility spilled across the US-British Columbia border and has poisoned our well. Over the past decade, the consequences of incivility have been playing out in the world of local government. Now what? Local government is at a tipping point. “History reminds us that seasons of civic decay and renewal are not new,” writes Diane Kalen-Sukra. Could her book, Lead with Civility, be the spark that catalyzes action to turn the cultural tide in British Columbia?

“We put all our energies into planning for the future to accommodate growth. It is almost to the point where infrastructure is an afterthought. Then we create an extreme variety of demands and high levels of service that we cannot possibly sustain. Local government is dealing with a double-edged sword. The demand for services and quantity of services is going through the roof. But there is a clash with the willingness of residents to pay for those services. But the revenue from development cost charges and user rates is not enough to cover asset renewal,” stated Bill Sims.

“Zooming out to view the past three decades as a whole, the period 1997 through 2005 was the crucible for the golden period that followed from 2006 through 2011. The era is bracketed by the passage of the Fish Protection Act in 1997 and the Green Infrastructure Consultation Workshop held in May 2005. These were literally watershed moments. Leaps of faith and calculated risks – that succinct statement defined the approach and way of thinking that guided and made innovation possible,” stated Kim Stephens of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia.

“The Water Act had evolved over many years and had limitations. And I really appreciated that government was willing to go out on a limb to replace it. The WSA took the hard edge off the 1909 Water Act while continuing the foundation of priority rights. The WSA respects priority rights BUT there is a provision that if you get into a situation where communities rely on a small amount of water for essential household needs, there is a provision to allow that to happen. That illustrates the flexibility that we did not have under the Water Act,” stated Valerie Cameron.

“We run a lot of municipal press releases, but there are deeper stories to be told,” stated Todd Pugh, Executive Director of CivicInfo, the data and information agency serving BC’s municipal sector. Waterbucket eNews has evolved to meet a growing need for a trusted source of information, one that provides context and perspective for a changing local government setting. Stories draw attention to the elephants in the room and that starts conversations. Headlines and supporting quotable quotes for 10 stories are sneak previews that foreshadow what is coming this fall.

“For the past decade, the situation in BC has been touch and go almost every year. In 2015, Western North America clearly crossed an invisible threshold into a different hydrometeorological regime. Over the past decade, it has been one drought after another, dramatized by the extremes that impacted BC communities in 2021 and again in 2023. While it rains a lot, we do not have an abundance of supply when demand is greatest. Right when we need a reliable supply of water, we can expect deeper, more persistent drought punctuated by flooding,” stated Kim Stephens.

“Once you start understanding where your food comes from, and what you are eating, it opens conversations into all kinds of water and land issues. Almost always, Canada’s own exposure to weather extremes are lower than the other places we depend on…especially the USA. When we look at trade and food coming into a country, we always look at the national level. This is the first time it has been done at a provincial scale. And we know where food is coming from within the USA. Our food systems need to be transformed,” stated Kushank Bajaj.

“The collaborative nature of the working relationship between Asset Management BC and the Partnership for Water Sustainability, combined with our shared commitment to Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery, transcends our memorandum of understanding. We share a mission and represent complementary audiences and perspectives within local government. Wally Wells, founding Executive Director of AMBC, has successfully passed the baton to Arnold to carry on the mission to operationalize sustainable service delivery,” stated Kim Stephens.

The edition of Waterbucket eNews published on January 28, 2025 celebrated the contributions of the late Barry Janyk (1952-2024), former 4-term mayor of the Town of Gibsons. He was outspoken, funny and fearless in following his passions and advocating for the causes he believed in. One of those causes was “Smart Development”. Because he believed in doing the right thing, he played a leadership role in setting the green infrastructure movement in motion a generation ago. He was an influencer in a profound and public way. He helped change history.

“Re-set means implement a course correction so that governments would maintain and manage engineered and natural assets as interconnected components within a system that includes the people who live there. What would success look like? At a high level, the community writ large would buy-in to the need and financial case for funding SOLUTIONS THAT ARE AFFORDABLE, EFFECTIVE AND PRAGMATIC. That is the point of departure for setting in motion changes that are for the common good,” stated Kim Stephens.