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Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia

PATH FORWARD FOR GROUNDWATER IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Unless it is legislated, it is not a priority for government,” states Mike Wei, former Deputy Comptroller of Water Rights


“Unless you have legislation that tells you what the important requirements are, it is very hard to go forward. Legislation drives scientific questions; in turn, science informs legislation. It is not a one-time thing, but rather iterative. The science forward approach which some academics advocate is a good idea but has practical challenges. One of the challenges with science forward is if it is not legislated, it is not a priority for government. Also, you do not know what the hydrologic values are going to be 30 years from now. So it is very hard to figure out what questions to ask,” stated Mike Wei.

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WHAT AFFORDABLE AND CLIMATE-READY HOUSING WOULD LOOK LIKE: “The challenge facing local governments is the breakdown in the transfer of knowledge. And so there is a lack of understanding of why we do the things we do, whether those things be plans, policies or regulations,” stated Robert Hicks, a career engineer-planner in local government in the Metro Vancouver region


“Without deep knowledge and an understanding of history, proposed courses of action may be unimplementable. The loss of big picture thinking is reflected in the way larger organizations are siloed. Their focus is on immediate mandates and on managing budgets and staffing. When you talk to the right people, they do see the big picture and how everything connects. And yet, when it comes into the actual realm of application, it is so much easier for them to apply something when it is chopped up and put into silos. And in the process, they lose sight of the big picture,” stated Robert Hicks.

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A VISION WITH A TASK IS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD: “Jody Watson is a great example of how one individual with a long term vision and determination can make a difference,” stated Eric Bonham at the Partnership for Water Sustainability Forum held in Nanaimo (October 2023)


The Partnership for Water Sustainability’s Watershed Moments Award honours the memory of the late Rob Lawrance, former Environmental Planner with the City of Nanaimo. Just like Rob did throughout his career, Jody Watson champions the embedding of ecosystem values within Capital Regional District municipal planning, processes and projects, “The award draws attention to the vision for connecting people and place by recognizing the passion and commitment of those who excel in contributing to the success of the Watershed Moments idea and vision,” stated Eric Bonham.

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FINANCIAL CASE FOR STREAMS: “EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, is remarkable in its simplicity and is pragmatic. EAP starts with an understanding of the parcel because that is how communities regulate and plan land use. It is the parcel level where you get the information that you need to change practice to protect natural assets,” stated Tim Pringle, EAP Chair, at the time of release of Beyond the Guidebook 2022


“The vision for EAP set the challenge: develop a practical methodology, one that would be relevant to local government managers and the community, for determining the monetary value of drainage infrastructure and other services drawn (or adapted) to some degree from ecosystems. Initially, we saw EAP as a tool – that is, the EA Protocol – that would help practitioners calculate the opportunity cost of balancing ecological services with drainage infrastructure. However, the first demonstration applications revealed that the term EA Process more accurately describes the challenge of working with multiple intervenors,” stated Tim Pringle.

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BEYOND THE GUIDEBOOK 2022 / FINANCIAL CASE FOR STREAMS: 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?


The process is in motion to operationalize a transition strategy over a 3-year period and initially embed the Ecological Accounting Process (EAP) program in the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute (MABRRI). “We believe that incorporating students from Vancouver Island University and other universities will support understanding and experience within municipal governments on the importance of EAP, and simply understanding EAP. Fortunately, most of VIU’s Master of Community Planning, and Master GIS students find themselves working within municipal governments,” stated Graham Sakaki.

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WHAT’S IN A WORD: “Choice of words can make or break one’s ability to open minds to a new or different way of thinking,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC


“By focusing on the distinction between a PLAN and a STRATEGY, the article by Wally Wells goes to the heart of output-oriented versus outcome-oriented approaches. The issue of ‘output versus outcome’ is one that the provincial government first identified two decades ago when it released Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia. The Guidebook premise is that a focus on desired outcomes would lead to action, whereas a focus on output leads to ‘analysis paralysis’. Living Water Smart in British Columbia is outcome oriented,” stated Kim Stephens.

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DESIGN WITH NATURE FRAMEWORK FOR SYSTEMS APPROACH TO GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE: “Our partners in provincial and local government tell us that the oral history, and the intergenerational sharing and learning that goes with it, are rapidly being lost. The ramifications of this new reality create a sense of urgency to inform and educate BC audiences,” stated Kim Stephens when the Partnership for Water Sustainability released a legacy resource introducing the ‘green infrastructure continuum’ idea as metaphor for hope (February 2022)


“As a metaphor for hope. the continuum idea allows us to answer the question, how well are we doing? The green infrastructure continuum is the way we measure progress to achieve the Living Water Smart vision for creating liveable communities and protecting stream health. The lynchpin for achieving these ‘design with nature’ outcomes is intergenerational collaboration, driven by systems thinking. Hope springs from a systematic and adaptive approach that builds on a solid foundation, and consistently gets it right. The ramifications of this new reality create a sense of urgency,” stated Kim Stephens.

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INTERWEAVING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE & WESTERN SCIENCE: “In British Columbia, hydrometric records are fairly limited in time and geographic coverage. From a hydrology perspective, then, interweaving science and a rich oral history would turn a comparatively short period of data collection into thousands of years of knowledge. This might profoundly change how we view extreme changes in the water cycle and the consequences in BC,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability (February 2022)


“If Thomas Bayes (1702-1761) was alive today, I have no doubt that he would say, oral history extends the period of period and our understanding of what the data mean. Bayesian statistics offers a framework for combining different kinds of information and making best use of what is available. Four decades ago, a municipality brought public works staff back from retirement so that I could interview them and compile the oral history of strategic culvert installations. These ‘data inputs’ made it possible to generate flood frequency curves,” stated Kim Stephens.

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TURNING IDEAS INTO ACTION: “I believe that engineers need to move away from a technocentric approach and adopt a sociotechnical mindset. By this I mean we need to start thinking about the ways in which the social and technical are always connected. These aspects should not be separated, with technical challenges going to the engineers and social challenges going to the sociologists,” stated Professor Gordon Hoople, University of San Diego (January 2022)


“Engineers spend much of their time absorbed in the technical aspects of problems, whether they’re designing the next generation of smartphones or building a subway. As recent news stories attest, this technocentric approach has some critical limitations, and the result can end up harming rather than helping society. We ask students to spend far too much time solving mathematical equations and far too little time thinking about the human dimensions of the problems they are trying to solve,” stated Gordon Hoople.

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CONTEXT AND HISTORY REALLY DO MATTER: “In the moment, extreme events can be overwhelming. But the big picture situation is by no means hopeless. My key message is to view climate change as another variable, not a driver. Understand the system context because climate adaptation is about water, whereas climate mitigation is about carbon,” stated Kim Stephens, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC (Sept 2021)


“The risks are real. Droughts affect all of us. BC is on fire and streams are drying up. We do not have the luxury of time to implement solutions. And we certainly cannot afford to reinvent the wheel due to generational and/or corporate amnesia. Context and history really do matter because it takes a career to develop perspective and understanding of what works and what does not. Because there is no silver bullet, communities need to do many little things to adapt to the new climate reality,” stated Kim Stephens.

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