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Joan Sawicki

    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “Few people know how important the Fraser Valley is to food security for British Columbia. The question is…does anyone care, really?” – Ted van der Gulik, President of the Partnership for Water Sustainability, and former Senior Engineer in the Ministry of Agriculture (6th installment in a preview series)


    “The fertile Fraser Valley is some of the best farmland in Canada and can grow a lot of the food that we need. To get to food security in BC, we need to increase the irrigated area from 200,000 to 300,000 hectares. If we invest in the infrastructure needed to supply water from the Fraser River, one-third of the additional 100,000 could be provided in the Fraser Valley. But we are slowly losing our land base for growing food. And it is not because land is coming out of the Agricultural Land Reserve. Rather, it is all about what is happening on the land within the ALR,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “Meeting Metro Vancouver’s urgent housing demand is exactly the sort of situation for which we developed the regional growth strategies legislation in the 1990s,” stated Mike Harcourt, former Premier of British Columbia whose leadership made possible the Growth Strategies Act (5th installment in a preview series)


    “How do we manage the number of people that are moving into the Georgia Basin when we have a very tough geography where the urban space is pretty limited by the sea and the mountains, and by rivers and agricultural land and park wilderness. When you take all that out, there is not a lot of land for urban development and an urban population. Cities are all about choices. much will depend upon getting the choices right,” stated Mike Harcourt.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Is our food security slipping away without anyone noticing?” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in November 2024


    Ted van der Gulik was ahead of his time when he spearheaded development of the Agriculture Water Demand Model almost two decades ago. With this tool, British Columbia has been able to quantify what the province has versus what the province needs with respect to land and water for food security. “In the Fraser Valley, we are losing some of the best agricultural land in Canada and without even knowing it is happening.. All of us need to care about what happens on the land. That will require a mind-set change,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Cities are all about choices” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in November 2024


    “In 1992, I asked the BC Roundtable on the Economy and Environment to investigate the challenge of growth from a bioregional perspective. The idea for the Georgia Basin Initiative was seeded in their report titled Georgia Basin Initiative: Creating a Sustainable Future. The Roundtable findings were clear. We need to act quickly to avoid the situation faced by other large urbanizing regions, where unmanaged growth is degrading the environment and lowering the overall quality of life for the people who live there,” stated former premier Mike Harcourt.

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “The task at hand is about how to redefine things in a new political environment so you would be able to get a new vision and new political commitment,” stated Ray Fung (1st installment in a series)


    “With the housing issue dominating the conversation, how will you reframe the goal and objective for restoration of stream systems in a way that restores political commitment and rebuilds the coalition? What combination of public self-interest and political lever will it take to effect change? What would leveraging political commitment and self-interest look like for rainwater management and riparian forest integrity in today’s context? What combination will it take to effect change? Learn from past experience. There is no time to reinvent the wheel,” stated Ray Fung.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver – solutions to complex problems require deep knowledge” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in September 2024


    “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. The Georgia Basin Initiative encouraged us to see the bioregion as an integrated whole, to understand that land, air, water, people, animals and fish are all interconnected. Viewing our growth challenges through this more wholistic lens will give us the best chance to monitor progress,” stated Joan Sawicki.

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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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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Fifty Years – and miraculously still here: BC’s Agricultural Land Reserve” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in April 2023


    Most British Columbians do not know a British Columbia without the ALR. “With only about 5% of BC’s land area capable of agricultural use, 50 years ago it was estimated we were losing 6000 hectares per year to non-farm uses. It was clear that local governments could not withstand development pressures upon this scarce provincial resource, In 1973, the Agricultural Land Reserve not only preserved the land for food production for present and future generations, but it preserved the option to plan our settled communities to be more resilient and sustainable,” stated Joan Sawicki.

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