Convening for Action in British Columbia

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tim pringle

    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Communities need annual budgets to tackle the Riparian Deficit along streams” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in March 2023


    The requirement for an Asset Management Plan addresses the disconnect between land use oversight and direct responsibility for maintenance and management of stream corridor condition. “The oversight question is one that we are addressing with EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process. Local governments have real data to quantify the financial value of streams as physical assets. This metric allows them to put streams into the basket of local government asset management responsibilities,” stated Tim Pringle.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Build bridges of understanding, pass the baton!” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in March 2023


    “Over the past 30 years, a series of provincial government initiatives established a direction for water sustainability, including Stewardship of the Water of BC in 1993, the Fish Protection Act in 1997, and the Water Conservation Strategy for BC in 1998. The high-water mark is Living Water Smart, British Columbia’s Water Plan, released in 2008. The Water Sustainability Act is another key piece; the Partnership is committed to furthering its implementation and collaborating with the provincial government to fill gaps and improve the legislation.,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    A 3-YEAR STRATEGY FOR ENSURING CONTINUITY OF THE PARTNERSHIP NETWORK: “Growing and sustaining the network is very much about finding those to whom we can pass the baton. At the end of the day, however, ensuring continuity of the network is really about how organizations continue within the network,” stated Ted van der Gulik in his President’s Perspective (Annual Report 2022, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC)


    “A Partnership strength is the real-world experience we bring because of our multiple initiatives under Living Water Smart Actions. Under that vision, various building blocks processes have evolved over the decades. The Watershed Security Strategy and Fund, an initiative of the current provincial government, is the obvious mechanism to revisit, understand, learn from, and leverage past successes in the building blocks continuum. We have tools to help do the job. We can achieve better stewardship of BC’s water resources for present and future generations,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart: Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative, a unique mechanism for local government collaboration” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in November 2022


    The pressing need for timely, affordable, and effective solutions is the driver for the IREI. A goal of collaboration is to build local government capacity, capability, and competence to deliver on expectations. The IREI program showcases what “collaborative leadership in action” looks like. It is about bringing the right people together in constructive ways with good information, such that they create authentic visions and strategies. “The Ambassadors Program complements the IREI Program and is emerging as a foundation piece for inter-generational collaboration,” stated Derek Richmond.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Affordable and sustainable re-investment in municipal infrastructure is essential” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in November 2022


    “My inspiration came from Guy Felio, who is one of the original gurus of asset management nationally. In his own words, and in a slide that I have seen him use in presentations since the mid-2000s, Guy Felio said, ‘It is all about the service’. Basically, well-maintained municipal infrastructure assets are worthless IF THEY DO NOT provide a service. That is what resonated with me. Also, for any asset management approach to be successful, it must not focus on the infrastructure asset by itself. That way-of-thinking applies to nature and the environment as well,” stated Glen Brown.

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    ARTICLE: “How much should local governments spend each year to reduce the Riparian Deficit?” (Asset Management BC Newsletter, Fall 2022)


    “In the 1990s, seminal research at the University of Washington on the science of land use changes produced a road map for protection of stream system integrity. For the past generation of practice, then, communities and practitioners should have known what they ought to be doing. And some have made progress. But, in the big picture, the last two decades have been characterized by an inability to act on the science. The consequence is a growing Riparian Deficit. There is scant understanding of a stream system context, the value of water balance pathways, the condition of native vegetation and woodlands cover, and the need for restoration,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Ecological Accounting – what’s in a NUMBER?” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in October 2022


    The EAP methodology and metrics evolved over the course of a 6-year program of applied research. The first two stages were TEST and REFINE the methodology, respectively. Stage 3 then involved 5 more projects to demonstrate how to operationalize EAP within local government processes. “Stage 3 is the springboard to embedding EAP in the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Research Institute at Vancouver Island University. This will ensure knowledge of EAP is maintained and passed on to the next generations of planners and local government staff,” stated Tim Pringle.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Perspectives on reconciling the disconnect between short-term and long-term thinking” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in September 2022


    At an international business conference in 2015, Eva Kras built on brain research findings by Ian Gilchrist, renowned psychiatrist and thinker. He defined the two types of thinking processes. She created an intellectual bridge between his research and the potential for its application in the world of business. “Research by Ian Gilchrist demonstrates that we need to re-learn basically ‘how we think’, using both hemispheres, to switch things around to achieve a viable balance between the two types of thought processes,” said Eva Kras.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Communities in Balance with Water – Create a Vision, Build a Legacy” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in September 2022


    Every generation is handed a world that has been shaped by their predecessors – and then seemingly forgets that fact. In a short-but-influential paper published in 1995, legendary UBC fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly argued that this blind spot meant scientists were failing to account fully for the slow creep of disappearing species. Daniel Pauly coined this effect as the Shifting Baseline Syndrome. “You can have a succession of changes. At the end you want to sustain miserable leftovers. And the question is, why do people accept this? Well, because they don’t know that it was different,” he observed.

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    ARTICLE: “How much should local governments spend each year to reduce the Riparian Deficit?” (Asset Management BC Newsletter, Summer 2022)


    If we know how to do a much better job of protecting ecological features and stream systems in our communities and on our landscape, then why aren’t we doing a better job? Why are streams still degrading? Why do we still see practices that exacerbate the situation? Why is understanding lacking? How do we change that? “I would especially draw your attention to the article. This is a groundbreaking article and one to be specifically noted. The more we get the Asset Management message out the better off we all are,” wrote Wally Wells, Executive Director of Asset Management BC, in his email to newsletter readers.

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