Convening for Action in British Columbia

The goal in showcasing innovation and celebrating successes is to promote networking, build regional capacity, and move ‘from awareness to action’ – through sharing of green infrastructure approaches, tools, experiences and lessons learned as an outcome of designing with nature. The Summary Report elaborates on what was accomplished at each of three events in the 2007 Series.

“We have endeavoured to weave a seamless storyline that shows how the Learning Lunch series fits into a bigger picture; and how the program elements that comprise Convening for Action on Vancouver Island are linked. Each success builds on the last, and paves the way for the next,” stated John Finnie.

“Showcasing Innovation has helped local government practitioners immeasurably by creating forums for them to share their experiences and lessons learned. This has created a ripple effect that has spurred even more innovation. The 2008 Series can play an integrating role to cut across disciplines and ultimately help communities create neighbourhoods that integrate both good planning and innovative engineering designs,” stated Ray Fung.

The Delta theme was “Greener Developments, Roadside Rainwater Management and the Urban Forest”. The program showcased Delta’s green infrastructure initiatives and shared lessons learned.

“The Green Infrastructure Partnership is promoting use of a ‘green' vocabulary that reflects an understanding of the relationship between land and water,” stated Paul Ham, Chair.

There would be value in funding a catalogue of local government policies and practices that accommodate settlement while at the same building in green value. “The ultimate objective in developing the catalogue is that it will enable the sharing of preferred practices across regions,” stated Chris Jensen.

According to Kim Stephens, the relevance of the South Okanagan example is that it too was a Convening for Action regional pilot: the Regional Growth Strategy is water-centric (plan with a view to water), and recognizes the relationship between land and water (both in terms of water use and water runoff). The innovation is the toolkit that follows policy, and which leads to benchmarking and monitoring/measuring what matters.

The mission of the Water Sustainability Action Plan is to facilitate the move toward a more sustainable approach to water resource management. “In 2006, a notable highlight was conducting a consultation workshop to launch ‘Convening for Action on Vancouver Island’,” wrote Ray Fung, Chair.

“It is the telling of the story about an event that takes on importance in moving practitioners from talk to action. 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,” stated Kim Stephens.

”In BC, the approach that we are taking is to set the goal. As a result, we are seeing people in local governments leapfrogging each other to see how close they can get to the goal,” stated Chris Jensen.