Green Infrastructure

“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.

“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.

“Metro Vancouver and member municipalities are encouraged to consider how the degree, type and location of land development affects watershed health,” wrote Environment Minister Terry Lake in his letter that formally approved the regional plan. Failure to follow through and build on work done up to 2011 to deal with requirements in his ministerial approval is an unintended outcome. Failure to follow through reflected scant understanding of a stream system context. Land development pressures pushed local governments to pay lip-service to the role of the streamside protection zone.

When read together, the set of 13 stories about green infrastructure influencers in Metro Vancouver paint a picture of what it takes to innovate and lead changes in practice in the local government setting. Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” is a concept that states that to inspire action, you must begin with why you do what you do, before explaining how you do it and what you do. This is based on the belief that purpose, cause, and belief (the “why”) are the most powerful motivators, inspiring loyalty and action in a way that focusing on products or services (the “what”) alone cannot.

“When I look back at our history, I think wow, how did we do so much applied research. We had a need and Hans Schreier had grad students who were interested in doing the research. Win-win,” stated Richard Boase. “At a critical moment, members of the Partnership team would have an idea around a research theme that supported our hypotheses. And as often happened, I was the arm that had the energy and willingness to take on the research, apply new science in North Vancouver, and get the work done.”

“There has been a recent loss of long-term knowledge and experience because people who were providing regional leadership, and trying hard to make a difference, have retired from public office. The loss of understanding is real,” stated Darrell Mussatto. He served on North Vancouver City Council for 25 years, including 13 years as mayor. His time in office coincides with the timeline for the early adopter and leading by example phases of the Metro Vancouver region’s green infrastructure journey. He views the journey through both the local and regional lenses.

Paul Ham spent 34 years with the City of Surrey, retiring as General Manager of Engineering. Without Paul Ham’s quiet and unassuming leadership behind the scenes, would the green infrastructure movement in British Columbia have successfully launched a generation ago? Somebody had to go first and establish the landmark precedent. That is what Surrey did with the East Clayton Sustainable Community. Green infrastructure at a community scale! It all started with East Clayton.

Carrie Baron has always been a trailblazer. She could always be counted upon to lend her credibility to a good idea. Her efforts helped get multiple regional, intergovernmental, and inter-regional initiatives off the ground. three words define Carrie Baron’s engineering career: leadership, innovation and science. “We were lucky that we had the framework and the people in place at Surrey. We worked hard to get environment and drainage and notions of sustainability embedded over time, whether it was in stormwater bylaws or the Sustainability Charter,” stated Carrie Baron.

“At the time, all this stuff was happening when we were doing our regular jobs. We were quite jealous of how other municipalities were highlighting what they were doing. If it was not for the Partnership for Water Sustainability and the waterbucket.ca website, we would not have taken the time to report on what we were doing! We were just doing the job. It was always, one day we should write about it. I remember thinking if we could just write this stuff down. And the only place that we did it was through the Partnership,” stated Rémi Dubé.

“Why did BC local governments not follow through and learn from the example of the three states along the west coast? In BC, in parallel with the US states we did continue to research the problems and to identify practical improvements to our practice of rainwater management. For many practitioners it is far easier to simply add ground infiltration measures to existing drainage practices. The stream has not been included in any meaningful manner and the impacts have not been quantified, nor have the effects of any mitigation works,” stated Jim Dumont.