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“Beyond the Guidebook 2010 is the story of doing business differently in the local government setting, and connecting with the community. Government and large institutions, while needing to put in place broad policies and support systems, do not have enough influence by themselves to encourage individual behaviour change in support of conservation, at the level that is needed to maintain to adequately conserve out natural systems,” stated Pia Nagpal.

The two day GreenLink 2010 conference event attracted an international audience and “linked” the best of the best in Sustainable Communities, Finance, Technology and Government. “It was a real pleasure to take part in the Smarter Water Management panel and in particular to hear about the far-sighted and imaginative approach that the BC Government is taking to identifying, managing and educating people about the province’s water management issues. I am sure that this approach will provide lessons for other areas that seek to address their water management needs,” stated moderator Peter Williams.

“OKIM is the acronym for Okanagan Irrigation Management,” stated Ted van der Gulilk. “This online tool allows landowners to obtain information on metered water use, calculated theoretical water demand, and land use data for their properties.”

“We will use this coming together of BC's local leaders to share and learn from each other's experiences, and gain ideas to move our own communities forward,” said Harry Nyce. “The spirit of collaboration and newfound bonds that we have fostered in 2010 are undeniably valuable. But without action, we cannot move our communities forward. This year’s Convention will offer an opportunity to…. take our goals, and forge them into tangible outcomes….and continue to build gold medal standard communities.”

“One reaches a point in one’s career and one’s life when talk is not enough… it is the action, the outcome (that is important). Convening for action is our branding. Convening for action as a provincial initiative has evolved over the last five years. We started in the South Okanagan. By 2006, we were ready to go a bigger scale. We said let’s take on a whole region. That became Convening for Action on Vancouver Island. We applied the lessons that we learned in the South Okanagan. We asked the question: what do we want this place to look like in 50 years?”, stated Kim Stephens.

“We needed a way for all the departments to hear the same information at the same time; and we needed to know what is most relevant. The most efficient way to satisfy our information needs was to gather as a group and have a conversation with Kim Stephens,” stated Rodney Stott.

The School of Community and Regional Planning at UBC (SCARP) held its 2nd Annual Symposium in March 2010. The theme was Planning for Resilience. In his presentation, Kim Stephens responded to these questions: What potential crises is British Columbia facing presently or in the future regarding water? What is the state of current Provincial policies? What changes are needed and what lessons can we learn from other areas facing similar challenges?