ASSET MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE SERVICE DELIVERY: “Communities of Practice are the informal “by-us-for-us” meetings where asset management practitioners learn together, exchange ideas, and support one another’s growth,” wrote the City of Abbotsford’s Gracelyn (Winter 2025 issue of Asset Management BC Newsletter)
“Arnold Schwabe and Michael Wall held the first regional Community of Practice in 2016, and I was lucky enough to attend. I was 22 years old, an Asset Management Coordinator, and new to local governments. Arnold and Michael created a space where we could all speak frankly about asset management practice in our respective communities. It was such a positive experience that I excitedly offered to host the next meeting. Over time, regional Communities of Practice grew in BC. Southern Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland hosted meetings,” stated Gracelyn.
HISTORY OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The Partnership for Water Sustainability is the keeper of the Green Infrastructure Partnership legacy,” stated Paul Ham, a Past-Chair
During the period 2003 through 2010, the Green Infrastructure Partnership played a prominent role in leading change and assisting with implementation of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia. “I see my years of chairing the GIP as helping to get the ball rolling and ideas disseminated, on green infrastructure, all of which has subsequently been taken up by others to a much greater degree of implementation and success. Our efforts in the first decade of the 2000s moved the state of-the-art of green infrastructure to a more mainstream level,” said Paul Ham.
HISTORY OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Green infrastructure design is engineering design that takes a ‘design with nature’ approach, to mitigate the potential impacts of existing and future development,” stated Susan Rutherford, author of the Green Infrastructure Guide published by West Coast Environmental Law in 2007
The desire to mitigate environmental impacts provided a driver for a ‘green infrastructure’ movement that is water-centric and is founded on a natural systems approach. In 2007, the first Beyond the Guidebook guidance document provided a clear distinction between natural and engineered green infrastructure. “Two complementary strategies can ‘green’ a community and its infrastructure: first, preserving as much as possible of the natural green infrastructure; and secondly, promoting designs that soften the footprint of development,” wrote Susan Rutherford.
HISTORY OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The Green Infrastructure community-of practice on the Partnership’s waterbucket.ca website supplements the communication capacity of Asset Management BC by providing a platform to support our shared vision for the BC Framework for Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability Executive Director
“Collaboration between the Partnership and Asset Management BC is a success story because it is relationship-based and founded on respect and trust. The genesis for operationalizing both the Partnership and Asset Management BC in 2010, and for our shared commitment to collaboration, is a mandate to implement action items spelled out in Living Water Smart. We embrace and commit to Shared Responsibility in order to move ideas and approaches forward through the 4Cs – Communicate, Cooperate, Collaborate, Coordinate,” stated Kim Stephens.
REIMAGINE URBAN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AS AN ECOSYSTEM: “My research is the first systematic review of the use and definition of the green infrastructure concept in local government plans in the United States,” stated Zbigniew Grabowski, principal author of ‘What is green infrastructure? A study of definitions in US city planning’
“Many plans fail to explicitly define green infrastructure. How it is defined guides the types of projects that local governments implement, with enduring impacts to people and the urban environment. Ecology is not really being embedded in any planning practice. This realization turned my attention towards this question…how do you embed ecosystem science and principles within landscape planning to conserve landscapes, ecological functions, and quality? My work is about a new paradigm that moves away from humans as separate from nature,” stated Zbigniew Grabowski.
CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION IN METRO VANCOUVER – PART B:“Despite the population density that we have had to accommodate, and the ongoing growth due to the demand for housing, we have to set land aside for community livability,” stated Rémi Dubé, former Director of the City of Surrey’s Building Division
The intergenerational nature of drainage experience and evolution in Surrey is unique in the Metro Vancouver region. The city had a 25-yr head start on other BC municipalities. And there has been staff continuity over a 50-yr period. By 2009, Surrey had evolved from pilot projects to setting watershed-based objectives and targets. “The Biodiversity Development Cost Charge Bylaw for acquiring and enhancing land in stream corridors has been in place since 2019. Surrey is the only municipality that has one. The work to create the DCC was initiated many years before,” stated Rémi Dubé.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWS WITH GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INFLUENCERS IN METRO VANCOUVER REGION: “It is the Gen X who are most likely to now possess the knowledge but are overwhelmed by the Gen Y generation who do not have this knowledge,” stated Robert Hicks, career engineer-planner in the Metro Vancouver region
“An underlying issue for local government is knowledge-transfer. The baby boomers have more or less retired and now you are left with Gen X. But many Boomers continued in senior positions late into their careers, interrupting the chain of succession and knowledge transfer. What we are really saying is that, in the work force, a huge amount of experience has just gone out the door and very quickly. Solutions to complex problems require deep knowledge. The challenge facing local governments is the breakdown in the transfer of knowledge,” stated Robert Hicks.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWS WITH GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INFLUENCERS IN METRO VANCOUVER REGION: “Storytelling is as much of a lever for action as anything technical that we as practitioners learn,” stated Ray Fung, a past-chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership
“Stories open our minds to considering various viewpoints. Sharing of stories leads to reconciliation and building relationships, respect and trust,” stated Ray Fung. The stories for 13 green infrastructure influencers in the Metro Vancouver region provide context and a frame of reference for understanding as well as judging green infrastructure progress by Metro Vancouver municipalities over the past quarter-century. The stories behind the stories of the influencers set the stage for successive legs of the green infrastructure journey from 1997 to 2024.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWS WITH GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INFLUENCERS IN METRO VANCOUVER REGION: “We saw rainwater management as something positive. We could grab onto and run with it,” stated Darrell Mussatto, former Mayor of North Vancouver City, and longtime Chair of Metro Vancouver Utilities Committee
“You get elected and you start to learn. And you become inspired by what you see happening. I remember when the Fish Protection Act passed in 1997. It was a real eye opener for me because it meant a 180-degree change from what I had been thinking. This experience was my context when I served on and later chaired the Metro Vancouver Utilities Committee a decade later. When the region embarked on the first update to the LWMP in 2008, I found it extremely rewarding to be working with people that wanted to do things differently,” stated Darrell Mussatto.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWS WITH GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INFLUENCERS IN METRO VANCOUVER REGION: “With the Fergus plan, we were at a point where we could integrate engineering, planning, biology, geomorphology and recreation to influence the greening of the built environment,” stated Rémi Dubé, a former manager of drainage planning with the City of Surrey
“Surrey’s Development Cost Charges Bylaw (2019) for the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy did not happen overnight. The framework came out of the Fergus Creek watershed plan and the vision for green solutions many years before in 2006.Fergus was the first of the new generation of ISMPs. Our goal was to avoid a cookie-cutter approach that too often is an outcome of this type of multi-year program. Jim Dumont rose to the innovation challenge by developing a watershed plan that would actually facilitate changes in how land is developed or re-developed,” stated Rémi Dubé.