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DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: Living Water Smart in British Columbia: “Confront the problems, operationalize sustainable service delivery!” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in February 2025)


The article by Arnold Schwabe is structured in four parts. First, he introduces an historical perspective. Then he foreshadows how he envisions Asset Management BC will adapt to what is happening in local government. After that, he states the “purposes” of local government. He closes with a discussion on why he believes the precursors of change are in place for a re-set. “We have no more excuses. We need to move past our anxiety and confront the problems. I would like to say taxpayers are unhappy but that would be an understatement. They are angry,” he says.

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DOWNLOAD A COPY: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Counterbalance Artificial Intelligence with Natural Intelligence!” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in February 2025)


“Natural Intelligence is an idea that resonates because it is intuitively obvious. I believe it is that simple. Natural Intelligence is another angle on interweaving Western science and Indigenous knowledge because it explores what Indigenous knowledge is based on. Blue Ecology is a Natural Intelligence approach. Natural Intelligence is a form of Indigenous wisdom…which is knowledge of Natural Intelligence and how to live with it and how to be harmonious with it,” stated Michael Blackstock.

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DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Remembering Barry Janyk, political champion for Smart Development” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in January 2025


Bruce Milne was elected mayor of Sechelt the same year Barry Janyk was first elected to council, in 1996. “He held us all to account for the next three years, to make sure we really did make some change,” said Bruce Milne. “Elected officials who weren’t as confident sometimes found a lack of space left over for less confident people to be difficult for them, but it was never a problem when he was actually advocating for Gibsons or the Sunshine Coast.” Barry Janyk’s environmentalism was a pillar not only of his life, but his time in office.

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DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia Will 2025 be the year of the re-set?” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in January 2025


“Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. And everyone here will ultimately be judged – will ultimately judge himself – on the effort he has contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which his ideals and goals have shaped that effort,” stated Robert Kennedy in 1966. Considered his greatest speech, it popularized the phrase ”may you live in interesting times”. The phrase is ironic because “interesting” times are usually times of trouble.

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DOWNLOADS FOR THE FALL 2024 SEASON OF THE LIVING WATER SMART SERIES: “Storytelling is among the oldest forms of communication,” stated Professor Rives Collins, author of ‘The Power of Story: Teaching Through Storytelling’


We share our world view through our stories and storytelling This is how we pass on our oral history. Storytelling is the way we share intergenerational knowledge, experience and wisdom. “Storytelling is the commonality of all human beings, in all places, in all times,” stated Professor Rives Collins, Northwestern University, author of “The Power of Story: Teaching Through Storytelling”.

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DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Election day flooding spurs re-set and course correction” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in November 2024


“With an update underway in early 2023, Metro Vancouver staff reached out to me for historical perspective on the ‘streams and trees’ component of the region’s Liquid Waste Management Plan. Because I had been the chair of the advisory panel for the region’s second LWMP in 2010, this evolved into a knowledge-sharing process. What did you learn along the way, they would ask, and where did that lead each time. Because of their questions, what started out as a chronology of events grew into something much bigger in scope. The Chronicle is a tome,” stated Kim Stephens.

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DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Is our food security slipping away without anyone noticing?” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in November 2024


Ted van der Gulik was ahead of his time when he spearheaded development of the Agriculture Water Demand Model almost two decades ago. With this tool, British Columbia has been able to quantify what the province has versus what the province needs with respect to land and water for food security. “In the Fraser Valley, we are losing some of the best agricultural land in Canada and without even knowing it is happening.. All of us need to care about what happens on the land. That will require a mind-set change,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Cities are all about choices” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in November 2024


“In 1992, I asked the BC Roundtable on the Economy and Environment to investigate the challenge of growth from a bioregional perspective. The idea for the Georgia Basin Initiative was seeded in their report titled Georgia Basin Initiative: Creating a Sustainable Future. The Roundtable findings were clear. We need to act quickly to avoid the situation faced by other large urbanizing regions, where unmanaged growth is degrading the environment and lowering the overall quality of life for the people who live there,” stated former premier Mike Harcourt.

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DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Land planning perspective for liability reduction along streams” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in November 2024


“The starting point for EAP is Natural Asset Management. It lets local governments know the financial value of their streams as a Natural Commons Asset. EAP is a spatial view because the methodology is keyed to parcels which is as spatial as you can get. The EAP process allows local governments to transcend the numbers and explore the financial impact of land development choices. And it is also about solutions. Planners have a spatial way of looking at land use. So, I imagine that they would like to have a means of understanding a stream from a spatial point of view,” stated Tim Pringle.

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ARTICLE: “Look beyond AI, Artificial Intelligence, to solve your problems” – (Asset Management BC Newsletter, Winter 2024)


“Natural Intelligence, aka NI, has emerged from Blue Ecology which itself bridges Indigenous Wisdom and Western Science. Blue Ecology is about creating a new form of knowledge by interweaving useful threads from two cultures. At the Asset Management BC conference, Michael Blackstock understands that he will be speaking to an engineering-centric audience whose world revolves around numbers and inanimate objects such as pipes and pavement. Taking nature into account is not something that comes naturally to a municipal asset manager,” stated Kim Stephens.

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