Convening for Action in British Columbia

The purpose of the forum is to showcase how partnerships, collaboration, innovation and integration are helping local governments in three regions make the best choices for sustainable, healthy and vibrant communities. “The Water Sustainability Action Plan provides local governments and practitioners with the tools and experience to better manage land and water resources,” states Ted van der Gulik.

The forum program comprised four modules built around the creating our future and doing business differently themes. “Since 2004, Convening for Action in British Columbia has evolved into a ‘made in BC’ approach and process for moving from awareness to action. The Convening for Action vision is that water sustainability in British Columbia will be achieved through implementation of green infrastructure policies, practices and standards,” states Ray Fung.

“A key message in Living Water Smart is that green development makes sense. New thinking about development leads to new benefits. These include more green spaces, more water and fish in the streams, improved community vitality, reduced demand for water, and reduced expenditure on infrastructure,” stated Lynn Kriwoken.

“The mandate of the Ministry of Community Development is to foster partnerships, collaboration, innovation and integration through the program elements that comprise the Green Communities Project. The goal is to build
capacity that will result in sustainable, healthy and vibrant communities,” stated Karen Rothe.

“The Forum showcased how partnerships, collaboration, innovation, and integration are helping local governments in three regions make the best choices for sustainable, healthy and vibrant communities,” reported Kim Stephens. “The story of the Forum is told in a series of six stories published weekly on the Waterbucket website. These describe the elements of the Forum program, and are consolidated in a stand-alone document.

“To get to the big picture, it starts with the smallest pieces. Thus, the ultimate goal of the Living Water Smart and Green Communities initiatives is to establish expectations that, in turn, will influence the form and function of the built environment. Improving the built environment can protect or help restore the natural environment. How we develop or redevelop individual sites has ripple effects at the watershed scale,” states Kim Stephens.

“In speaking to a groundwater-oriented audience, my objective was to connect the dots between land development activities and groundwater protection. In particular, I wanted to eatablish the relevance of the hydrologic footprint concept. The equation is a simple one: reducing our hydrologic footprint is good for the groundwater resource,” stated Kim Stephens.

The technical program for the 2009 BC Ground Water Association Convention included a session on water sustainability so that the groundwater community would be informed about provincial initiatives underway in BC, and the implications for groundwater. “In speaking to a groundwater-oriented audience, my objective was to connect the dots between land development activities and groundwater protection,” stated Kim Stephens.

“The audience comprised a mix of Surrey staff from different departments, developers and designers who do work in Surrey, representatives from a large number of Metro Vancouver municipalities, and provincial regulators. At the end of the day, we achieved our stated objective of starting a dialogue between policy-makers and project implementers,” reports Kim Stephens.

“The forum program is organized as four modules and is built around two themes that are intertwined, namely – ‘creating our future’ and ‘doing business differently’. The Penticton Forum supports and/or complements various provincial initiatives, states Glen Brown. “These initiatives establish expectations that, in turn, will influence the form and function of the built environment in general and green infrastructure on the ground in particular.”