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Erik Karlsen

    ERIK KARLSEN – THOUGHT LEADER AND CHANGE AGENT WHO LEFT A LIVING LEGACY: “Through Erik Karlsen’s guidance, professional – and dare I say, political – wisdom and networking, together we charted at least a pathway towards ‘sustainability’ in the Georgia Basin bio-region,” stated Joan Sawicki, former Parliamentary Secretary for the Georgia Basin Initiative and a former BC Minister of Environment


    “As Parliamentary Secretary, I had a visionary document and strong personal support from Minister Marzari at the top,” stated Joan Sawicki. “And I had Erik Karlsen’s on-the-ground connections with Basin communities and their issues. All I had to do was run with it. And that’s what we did! Most of my work was just going out to communities. We were a very small staff – Judith Cullington, Charmaine Hall, and Brent Mueller. We were a small group but, with Erik’s energy and access to just about everybody everywhere, he created the illusion of something much larger.”

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Erik Karlsen, an extraordinary legacy” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in April 2025


    Erik Karlsen had a remarkable impact on the shape of BC communities. For a generation of elected representatives, he was a familiar face in the local government setting. Erik Karlsen had an unparalleled network of connection with Georgia Basin communities – and most importantly, a high degree of trust with those communities. The legacy of Erik Karlsen is rippling through time through the work of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in leading the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative, successor to the Georgia Basin Initiative.

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “Many books have been written about individual communities and industries around the great waterway, but none have examined the Georgia Basin region as a geographical unit with its own dynamic systems, which can best be understood as an interrelated whole,” wrote Dr. Howard Macdonald Stewart, author of Views of the Salish Sea


    In “Views of the Salish Sea”, Howard Macdonald Stewart documents that, too often in his career as an advisor to the United Nations, he experienced a vital paradise that had become an environmental desert due to ‘business as usual’ decisions. He wrote the book to help readers better understand past decisions and their consequences. “The pressure on this ecologically vulnerable area will only intensify. Will we continue with Business as Usual or implement Wise Use in the Salish Sea? The first step is to understand the complex story of the region,” stated Macdonald.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Livability of Southwest BC at a crossroads, again” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in April 2025


    “The region’s continued health and sustainability demands that we treat it as one system, not as a composite of separate and jurisdictionally distinct entities. As Parliamentary Secretary for the Georgia Basin Initiative, I had a visionary document and strong personal support from Minister Marzari at the top. And I had Erik Karlsen’s on-the-ground connections with Basin communities and their issues. All I had to do was run with it, And that’s what we did!. The Georgia Basin Initiative was successful because we had the right people at the right time,” stated Joan Sawicki.

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “Erik Karlsen was the secret sauce who convened the fantastic streamside regulation discussions that created collegiality between municipalities,” recalls Susan Haid, adjunct assistant professor at the University of BC


    Susan Haid has played a leadership role in trailblazing an ecosystem-based approach to community planning in British Columbia, first with the City of Burnaby and then with Metro Vancouver. This approach also took root in her subsequent experience in the District of North Vancouver and the City of Vancouver. “In many ways, what I am teaching comes back to the same kind of framework around ecosystem-based planning which Erik Karlsen and others were advancing in the 1990s, and which is synonymous with watershed-based planning,” stated Susan Haid.

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “A Helijet flight to Victoria is the story behind the story of how BC’s Growth Strategies Act came to be. Municipal Affairs Minister Darlene Marzari sat next to me in the only vacant seat. She said, Ken, we have to talk,” stated Ken Cameron, co-architect of Metro Vancouver’s Livable Region Strategic Plan in the 1990s (4th installment in a preview series)


    “Darlene Marzari said I have a staff and you have a board. We have to find a way of working around that. So, I met with her on a Saturday morning and made a presentation about the draft Livable Region Strategic Plan to an audience of one. No advisors. At the end of the presentation, she said “I want to do that. I want to make that possible”. The provincial government was beginning to talk about growth strategies It was fortunate that Metro Vancouver had a plan that was ready to go just at the time Darlene Marzari was inventing the mandate for it,” stated Ken Cameron.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Understand why the Livable Region Strategic Plan matters” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in October 2024


    “In 1990, the Metro Vancouver region initiated a growth strategy embodying many Smart Growth principles. The Plan had four pillars: a Green Zone, complete communities, a compact region, and increased transportation choice. A year ago, a group of us met with regional planning staff to pass on our knowledge and experience. Our message was, use the strengths of the unique regional planning system you have. We did this in the interest of providing current staff with some personal background on the Livable Region Strategic Plan,” stated Ken Cameron.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Regional Growth Strategies for Healthy Communities” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in May 2024


    “In the 2000s, we understood that we were going to have to do cities quite differently if we wanted to achieve the sustainability goals that we had set for ourselves. The Province passed the Regional Growth Strategies Act in 1994. This brought back a regional planning structure after BC had been without one for 10 years or so. The intent of the legislation was regional planning across a whole range of values. It was my job to implement regional growth management. We had not done something like that before. It was much more than pure land use planning,” stated Dale Wall.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: ‘Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Georgia Basin Initiative legacy ripples thru time” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in April 2024


    “The 1990s was a very heady time in government in terms of land use planning and natural resource management. Some initiatives were not implemented all that well, but the Georgia Basin Initiative was the exception. “Launched in 1994, it did exactly what it was intended to do, Moreover, even though it only existed as an entity for a couple of years, it spawned a whole number of other initiatives and programs, some of which blossomed and still exist today,” stated Joan Sawicki, Parliamentary Secretary for the Georgia Basin Initiative during the period 1994-1996.

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    GEORGIA BASIN INITIATIVE LEGACY RIPPLES THROUGH TIME: “If we have lost anything in the last 30 years, it is a strong provincial commitment to supporting community and regional planning,” stated Joan Sawicki, land and resource management champion, and former provincial cabinet minister


    “When you think of the issues we face today….weather extremes, drying rivers, degraded streams, frequent wildfires, population growth, housing affordability…they are no different than they were 30 years ago. They are just more complex and more urgent. We need a renewed provincial provincial emphasis – and yes, that means budget – on supporting community and regional planning and we need another Darlene Marzari. She was the single most important reason for the success of the Georgia Basin Initiative. Darlene Marzari had the knowledge, experience and quiet resolve to make things happen,” stated Joan Sawicki.

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