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“Local government leaders are telling our staffs that we want to be a sustainable community tomorrow. We are not being so unrealistic as to ask for this yesterday,” stated (former) City of Courtenay Mayor Starr Winchester. “We want to keep our rural areas rural, yet we are faced with many people coming into the valley, especially now that we have an international airport. We are experiencing phenomenal growth. So we are really depending on the practitioners to keep us grounded and realistic so that growth will be sustainable.”

“There are indeed a lot of good things happening throughout Vancouver Island,” stated John Finnie. “Yet practitioners in local government are not necessarily aware when they are being innovative and are not often aware of innovation in other municipalities. We believe a key to the success of CAVI is that we are talking to people, not preaching at them. Our approach is to inform and educate. We do this by creating situations for people to have conversations.”

Surrey’s Fergus Creek Watershed Plan is the pilot for Beyond the Guidebook. The plan is based entirely on implementing ‘green solutions’ as an alternative to conventional engineered ‘blue solutions’. “The Fergus plan demonstrates how to protect stream health in the urban environment”, noted David Hislop. “In addition to rainwater capture on individual lots, the strategy for replicating natural infiltration processes includes creation of contiguous large-scale green corridors through the watershed.”

“The Stormwater Guidebook set in motion a chain of outcomes that has resulted in BC being recognized internationally as a leader in implementing a natural systems approach to rainwater management in the urban environment,” stated Minister of Environment Barry Penner in 2007. “The Convening for Action initiative creates an opportunity to move beyond rainwater management to embrace all components of the water cycle through integrated water management.”

“In 2002, British Columbia’s Stormwater Guidebook facilitated a paradigm-shift in the state-of-the-practice because it demonstrated that rainfall capture was achievable. The next paradigm-shift in the state-of-the-practice will revolve around the way we relate runoff volume management to stream erosion and water quality. Volume is something that local government has control over, and it is measurable,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

“While considerable research has been done in the natural environment, very little has been in an urban setting anywhere in North America. We have installed 60 tree canopy climate stations across the North Shore,” stated Richard Boase. “At the end of the day, the project will enable communities to make informed planning decisions about designing with nature. Research results will populate the Tree Canopy Module in the Water Balance Model.”

The plan is based entirely on implementing ‘green solutions’ as an alternative to conventional engineered ‘blue solutions’. “The Fergus Creek plan demonstrates how to protect stream health in the urban environment”, noted David Hislop. “In addition to rainwater capture on individual lots, the strategy for replicating natural infiltration processes includes creation of contiguous large-scale green corridors through the watershed.”

“Innovative approaches are needed in order to mitigate the risk of flooding, pollution, and aquatic ecosystem degradation, and enhance beneficial uses of urban waters. To examine such approaches, a series of three regional conferences on innovative rainwater and stormwater management were held in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto during 2007 to 2008. Funding provided by the Canadian Water Network enabled us to bring together a pan-Canadian team of academics and practitioners,” stated Dr. Hans Schreier.

To capture their attention, this question was posed to local governments on Vancouver Island: how can your Regional Growth Strategy or Official Community Plan be aligned with A Positive Settlement Strategy? “If we are to control our destiny, then we need to challenge Vancouver Islanders to visualize what they want this place to look like in 50 years and get on with creating our future,” stated Rod Sherrell.

“We started the day with high expectations that the Beyond the Guidebook Seminar would prove to be a transformational event, and we exceeded those expectations as the day unfolded. Further, my prediction is that this event will become part of our green infrastructure folklore,” stated Kim Stephens. “A key is that those who were there come away inspired and start doing things differently in their day jobs as a result of what they learned by being part of the moment.”