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STEAL THIS IDEA! – “Three half-hour segments gave participants the chance to check out their favourite ideas and get the scoop on how to bring them back to their own communities. This session was held for the first time during the 2010 conference and it was very popular with delegates,” explains Azzah Jeena. “There was a great deal of excitement and energy in the room and it seemed that delegates were very engaged during the various roundtable discussions. The on-the-spot evaluation in the session room indicated a high level of satisfaction with the content and format of the session.”

In 2011, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) held its Sustainable Communities Conference outside the Ottawa region for the first time. Hosted by the City of Victoria in February, the conference included a session called STEAL THIS IDEA!. The session was presented by FCM’s Green Municipal Fund; and moderated by Emanuel Machado “Eight innovators shared their breakthrough examples of municipal sustainability in a range of sectors. The interactive nature of the ‘Steal This Idea!’ session allowed the participants to move from simply receiving information to engaging and sharing lessons and knowledge,” commented Emanual Machado.

“We are CONNECTING THE DOTS between land use planning, development, watershed health AND infrastructure asset management. When communities are guided by a DESIGN WITH NATURE philosophy, water sustainability can be achieved. It will be achieved by implementing GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE policies and practices,” stated Kim Stephens. “We describe this as MISSION POSSIBLE because those operating in the local government setting can now access tools and experience that will enable them to make a difference.  Our approach is TOP-DOWN / BOTTOM-UP.”