Category:

“We have to develop expertise to support The New Business As Usual. Vancouver Island is the pilot region for much of this work through CAVI, Convening for Action on Vancouver Island. The approach to practitioner education is inclusive, and supports water-centric planning and a design with nature way-of-thinking. It actually helps to make liveable communities that are in balance with ecology. The goal is that today’s expectations will become tomorrow’s standards; and that we build the legal, technical and policy basis with which to support green infrastructure,” stated Dale Wall.

Inter-departmental participation by all member local governments effectively meant closing front counters on three Fridays for most of the day so that planning, engineering, operations and building inspection staff could attend the Learning Lunch seminars. “Throughout the series, our theme and our challenge was to ask participants what will they do better or differently to achieve a shared vision for the Cowichan Valley,” stated David Hewetson, Building Inspector with the City of Duncan. “This is why it was so important to get everyone thinking in terms of the What – So What – Now What mind-map.”

“A key message is the speed with which scenario analyses and comparisons can now be completed,” stated Jim Dumont. “What previously took weeks can now be done in hours. The significant benefit of the ‘new Water Balance Model’ is the resulting emphasis on strategy and alternative implementation methodologies. The QUALHYMO model is the proven hydrologic calculation engine that will provide consistent delivery of reliable results.”

“The case study applications built a common understanding of how to achieve runoff-based performance targets for rainwater management and green infrastructure,” stated Rob Conway. “What is unique about our approach is the educational context. Willing owners/developers and their planning/design consultants volunteered to develop and share the case studies. It truly is a collaborative effort.”

“We are using the slogan The New Business As Usual to convey the message that, for change to really occur, practices that until now have been viewed as the exception must become the norm moving forward. We have to build regulatory models and develop models of practice and expertise,” stated Dale Wall, Deputy Minister. “The shared vision is to move toward water sustainability by implementing green infrastructure policies and practices. This is a multi-year commitment by the funding agencies.”

“The educational approach is helping us to identify and empower a core group of local champions who will then have the expertise to apply and advance the water balance approach to land development,” stated Peter Nilsen.

“The vision is that the Showcasing Innovation Series can play an integrating role to cut across disciplines and ultimately serve as a catalyst to create Ministry of community development – dale wall, deputy minister neighbourhoods that integrate both good planning and innovative engineering designs, for overall greater sustainability….environmental, social and economic,” stated Dale Wall.

“Sustainable water management in BC is an important priority. The purpose of the workshops was to share information and explore opportunities for advancing water governance,” stated Lynn Kriwoken. ““Productive dialogue on challenges and solutions were the central focus of the workshops.”

“The roundtable discussion was a direct request from the provincial sponsor – Green Buildings BC – as they wanted to get a better understanding of costs and capacity around green buildings: from residential to commercial, institutional and government. The intent of this discussion was to get a cross-dialogue going on between builders, designers and the Province,” stated Vivian Dean.

“We organized the roundtable event to engage the major Vancouver Island developers in a conversation about the factors that facilitate or hinder their efforts to design, plan for and implement development incorporating Green Value Strategies on Vancouver Island,” said Jack Hall, REFBC Chair.