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“In 2013, when I made my first presentation about asset management at a CAO forum, I observed mostly blank stares. And when I engaged in conversations afterwards, I heard comments to the effect that asset management sounds interesting but that is not what we do, and we are not interested in that. A decade later, the awareness has clearly changed quite a bit. But from what I have seen, a majority of CAOs still have not bought in and are not necessarily interested. Some talk the talk but do not necessarily walk the talk,” stated David Allen

At an international business conference in 2015, Eva Kras built on brain research findings by Ian Gilchrist, renowned psychiatrist and thinker. He defined the two types of thinking processes. She created an intellectual bridge between his research and the potential for its application in the world of business. “Research by Ian Gilchrist demonstrates that we need to re-learn basically ‘how we think’, using both hemispheres, to switch things around to achieve a viable balance between the two types of thought processes,” said Eva Kras.

Every generation is handed a world that has been shaped by their predecessors – and then seemingly forgets that fact. In a short-but-influential paper published in 1995, legendary UBC fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly argued that this blind spot meant scientists were failing to account fully for the slow creep of disappearing species. Daniel Pauly coined this effect as the Shifting Baseline Syndrome. “You can have a succession of changes. At the end you want to sustain miserable leftovers. And the question is, why do people accept this? Well, because they don’t know that it was different,” he observed.

If we know how to do a much better job of protecting ecological features and stream systems in our communities and on our landscape, then why aren’t we doing a better job? Why are streams still degrading? Why do we still see practices that exacerbate the situation? Why is understanding lacking? How do we change that? “I would especially draw your attention to the article. This is a groundbreaking article and one to be specifically noted. The more we get the Asset Management message out the better off we all are,” wrote Wally Wells, Executive Director of Asset Management BC, in his email to newsletter readers.

“I reached out to Kim Stephens of the Partnership for Water Sustainability BC with an invitation to share more about the people, policy, and projects in BC, through penning an article for Water Canada magazine and sharing of relevant information. I am very keen on showcasing real world water projects, and the people whose lives they impact, with our national audience. The Ecological Accounting Process is a topic the Water Canada audience would really benefit from and that is why we featured it in the May-June 2022 issue,” stated Jen Smith, magazine editor.

“Now that we have landed on the Riparian Deficit concept, we are able to reflect on the two issues which provided context for the journey: first, engineering measures are insufficient for stream and riparian protection; and secondly, the link to municipal asset management has not been clear. To reach the destination, we had to address and show how to overcome four challenges: one, a lack of measurable metrics; two, confusion over what is an asset versus a service; three, ignorance about how to quantify the financial value of natural assets with real numbers; and four, numerous one-off projects that fail to build improved asset management practice,” stated Tim Pringle.

“Local governments need real numbers to deliver green infrastructure outcomes. It is that basic. Rhetoric is insufficient. EAP metrics are neither hypothetical nor speculative. They are grounded in the BC Assessment database. EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, is a foundation piece for Asset Management for Sustainable Drainage Service Delivery,” stated Kim Stephens. “Until now, local governments have lacked a pragmatic methodology and meaningful metrics. For those wishing to move from stopgap fixes to long-term solutions, EAP gives them a road map.”

“The Ministry of Community Development has an increasing role in ensuring that local governments are advancing and changing the ways they plan and design their communities for the better. We also described how the Ministry is using the Green Communities Initiative to advance green infrastructure province-wide. We emphasized that we are slowly raising the bar for local government. For example, we are saying ‘show us what you are doing to protect stream health’,” stated Karen Rothe.

“When the inter-ministry working group was developing the Streamside Protection Regulation in 1997, a presentation on the science of land use change by Kim Stephens and Bill Derry helped us realize that we needed more than a setback to protect aquatic habitat. The science showed that communities also needed to tackle what was happening on the land that drains to streams. For the Guidebook path, I found the opportunity to “look beyond the stream” and address poor water quality from drainage runoff in the Waste Management Act. The opportunity resided in the non-point source provision for Liquid Waste Management Plans,” stated Peter Law.

“At the end of the day, good decision-making comes down to a good process. But it also relies on wisdom in terms of balanced advice. And it comes with an accountable, political group of elected representatives that make the decisions. An airplane analogy is one way to describe the relationship. Think of one wing as political and the other as administration. If either wing is not functioning properly, the plane will crash. In Coquitlam, we are in balance. I have never yet seen a relationship that is so positive and healthy. Council runs the show. We give good advice. The operative phrase is respect-based,” stated Peter Steblin.