Convening for Action in British Columbia

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    WHEN FARMLAND PROTECTION IS NOT ENOUGH: “So here we are, losing farmland every year to industrial, non-farm use. Food security is at risk. How do we get the fruit of the Agricultural Land Reserve? That is what we have to protect,” stated Christina Gemino, graduate of the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University


    Christina Gemino titled her master’s thesis The Silent Death of Agriculture in Metro Vancouver. “The non-sanctioned expansion of industrial use on agricultural land was a factor that drove my research. It can forever change the agricultural land base. There was a 121% increase in ALR parcels with industrial use from 2016 through 2022. It should be ZERO percent. You can build warehouses and industrial stuff pretty well anywhere you have a piece of property. You cannot build a farm by bringing in soil. We have to find other places for this other stuff,” stated Christina Gemino.

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    CONTEXT FOR GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL LEGACY INITIATIVE: “The mid-year report provides an excellent understanding of our ‘philosophical’ rationale, how we function, and the collaborations and resources that make the Partnership for Water Sustainability effective,” stated Tim Pringle, founding director of the Partnership and adjunct professor at Vancouver Island University


    “The Partnership for Water Sustainability’s Mid-Year Report for 2025 is a baseline or landmark document. It is not a conventional annual report in the way people typically expect one to look like. The Partnership has adopted a storytelling approach to inform and engage readers about our mission,” stated Tim Pringle. Structured in three parts, the Mid-Year Report describes the Partnership’s operational framework followed by a section on the ambassadors’ program. Then it weaves quotable quotes into a narrative about the Partnership’s array of initiatives.

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    SNEAK PREVIEWS OF STORIES COMING THIS FALL ON WATERBUCKET eNEWS: “Years ago, a request from Todd Pugh of CivicInfo BC inspired our decision to provide a platform for unsung heroes and local government champions to share their stories behind the stories,” stated Kim Stephens of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia


    “We run a lot of municipal press releases, but there are deeper stories to be told,” stated Todd Pugh, Executive Director of CivicInfo, the data and information agency serving BC’s municipal sector. Waterbucket eNews has evolved to meet a growing need for a trusted source of information, one that provides context and perspective for a changing local government setting. Stories draw attention to the elephants in the room and that starts conversations. Headlines and supporting quotable quotes for 10 stories are sneak previews that foreshadow what is coming this fall.

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    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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    STORYTELLING PLATFORM FOR ECOSYSTEM-BASED APPROACH TO LAND AND WATER USE: “To inspire improved practices in all aspects of land development and water resource management, waterbucket.ca provides universal access to stories of peer-based learning,” stated Mike Tanner, founding chair of the intergovernmental waterbucket.ca partnership


    “Twenty years ago, we went live with the waterbucket.ca website. We profile those who do good work in the spirit of Living Water Smart. This is a big reason why waterbucket.ca has become the place where people go to look for information on water. We have the communication platform. We give the champions a voice. We are getting the stories of the Living Water Smart champions out there. This validates what they are doing. That is a public service that the Partnership is able to do because we have an independent communications platform,” stated Mike Tanner.

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    FOOD SECURITY IS AT THE INTERSECTION OF LAND, WATER, AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE: “We got lucky with the timing for the launch of the Canada Food Flows interactive portal. Overnight, food security is a national priority due to Donald Trump’s threats,” stated Dr. Kushank Bajaj, researcher at the UBC Land Use and Global Environment Lab


    “Once you start understanding where your food comes from, and what you are eating, it opens conversations into all kinds of water and land issues. Almost always, Canada’s own exposure to weather extremes are lower than the other places we depend on…especially the USA. When we look at trade and food coming into a country, we always look at the national level. This is the first time it has been done at a provincial scale. And we know where food is coming from within the USA. Our food systems need to be transformed,” stated Kushank Bajaj.

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    REMEMBERING BARRY JANYK, POLITICAL CHAMPION FOR SMART DEVELOPMENT: “The legacy of Barry Janyk is that his efforts elevated our profile and credibility with local government elected representatives. In the 2000s, he got us onto their radar screen and that enhanced our ability to influence them,” recalled Kim Stephens of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC


    The edition of Waterbucket eNews published on January 28, 2025 celebrated the contributions of the late Barry Janyk (1952-2024), former 4-term mayor of the Town of Gibsons. He was outspoken, funny and fearless in following his passions and advocating for the causes he believed in. One of those causes was “Smart Development”. Because he believed in doing the right thing, he played a leadership role in setting the green infrastructure movement in motion a generation ago. He was an influencer in a profound and public way. He helped change history.

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    BRING THE SCIENCE INTO LOCAL GOVERNMENT: “Hans Schreier of UBC ignited my passion in the mid-1990s when the District worked with UBC on applied research. What we learned was transformational. We then turned our minds to the role of green infrastructure in protecting streams from urban impacts,” stated Richard Boase, career environmental champion within local government in the Metro Vancouver region


    “The UBC research team led by Hans Schreier and Ken Hall dated all these sediment cores from Burnaby Lake and extracted sediments from certain years. They identified, for example, when lead stopped being used in gasoline. They also showed how pollutants in road runoff work their way through the drainage networks and into streams where they deposit. It was an inspiring moment for me. I saw a path forward for making a difference. That was the moment when I realized why we must do a better job of erosion and sediment control,” stated Richard Boase.

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    CONVENING FOR ACTION AT THE 2024 BC LAND SUMMIT: “There are many different parts to EAP. With each part comes a pathway with capacity to help local governments,” stated Anna Lawrence, Project Coordinator, Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute at Vancouver Island University


    Local government Asset Management Plans need real financial values in order to include budgets for streams. “Led by Tim Pringle, the Partnership for Water Sustainability created the methodology for EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process. EAP has been passed on to VIU as part of the intergenerational baton. Now we are in a 3-year transition strategy to embed it. As we become more familiar with EAP and its applications, it is becoming increasingly apparent that it requires tailored communication to a variety of audiences,” stated Anna Lawrence.

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    CONVENING FOR ACTION IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The ecosystem-based approach is needed more than ever to adapt to weather extremes,” stated Susan Haid, career environmental and urban planner in BC local government, and adjunct assistant professor at the University of BC


    “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. “Titled Policy for a Sustainable Region, it is big picture and is about policy frameworks to influence urban design. A lot of it is case studies and reflection. But I also bring in resiliency and ecological frameworks, with lectures on what are the best practices going forward. I call these sessions SHARPENING THE EDGE.”

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