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Darlene Marzari

    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION IN METRO VANCOUVER – PART A: “Each time we face an environmental challenge, we are once again looking at how we do business. A changing context causes us to ask important questions about how we might do things better,” stated Dale Wall, retired Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs


    “In the 1990s, very careful work by the likes of Parliamentary Secretary Joan Sawicki and Erik Karlsen created the foundation by which we could move forward with development of regional growth strategies and then implementation. It required huge amounts of work by people like Darlene Marzari when she was Minister of Municipal Affairs to build a consensus among local elected officials in terms of what a regional growth strategy might look like. That work changed, in many ways, the context. We had people in local government who were keen on doing this,” stated Dale Wall.

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    LIVING LEGACY OF THE GEORGIA BASIN INITIATIVE: “We share our world view through our stories and storytelling. It is not the technical stuff that carries the day. It is the stories about the technical stuff that carry the day,” stated Kim Stephens, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC


    “Launched in 1994, the Georgia Basin Initiative was a call to action by the provincial government. Its influence has rippled through time in profound and lasting ways. In 2024, the Partnership honours and celebrates the 30th anniversary of a watershed moment in BC history with a sweeping narrative of the GBI mission, the key players, and what followed in its wake over three decades and counting. The living legacy of the Georgia Basin Initiative is embedded in and embodied by the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative which the Partnership leads today,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    LIVING LEGACY OF THE GEORGIA BASIN INITIATIVE: “If we have lost anything in the last 30 years, it is a strong provincial commitment to supporting community and regional planning. We need another Darlene Marzari,” stated Joan Sawicki, former Parliamentary Secretary to Municipal Affairs Minister Marzari


    Part A of the Green Infrastructure Chronicle is dedicated to the shared legacy of three inspirational leaders who ran with the vision for the Georgia Basin Initiative: Creating a Sustainable Future and gave it life three decades ago. Without the passion and commitment of Darlene Marzari, Joan Sawicki and Erik Karlsen, the report may not have gone anywhere. They made a difference and they changed history in the Georgia Basin. Darlene Marzari had come out of local government. She was a strong Minister of Municipal Affairs. Land use planning was front and centre.

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    LIVING LEGACY OF THE GEORGIA BASIN INITIATIVE: “Erik Karlsen was the source of inspiration and ideas. He bridged the worlds of municipal affairs and environmental stewardship,” stated Joan Sawicki, the Parliamentary Secretary who led the Georgia Basin Initiative


    “Erik Karlsen served the public interest – the public hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow, for the environment, for human communities, and for future generations – almost without equal. And he did it with a style likely not to be seen again for a very long time. An amazing individual, he was one of a kind,” stated Joan Sawicki in a tribute statement when Erik Karlsen died in 2020. “He not only was way ahead of his time, but he also had an unparalleled network of connection with Georgia Basin communities – and, most importantly, a high degree of trust with those communities.”

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION IN METRO VANCOUVER: “There is no question that we have come a long way in overcoming memory loss in regional growth management and the future looks promising,” stated Ken Cameron, co-architect of Metro Vancouver’s Livable Region Strategic Plan in the 1990s (4th installment in a preview series)


    “In Spring 2023, a group of us had meetings with Metro Vancouver planning staff to pass on our knowledge and experience. Our message was, use the strengths of the unique regional planning system you have. We did this in the interest of providing current and future Metro planning staff with some personal background on the people and, in some cases, organizations, that influenced the preparation and adoption of the Livable Region Strategic Plan in 1996 and the subsequent evolution of the planning function,” stated Ken Cameron.

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    REGIONAL GROWTH STRATEGIES FOR HEALTHY COMMUNITIES: “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. And that was going to require substantial degrees of innovation,” stated Dale Wall, former Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs


    “As a matter of policy, the Province was quite deliberate in the sense that we wanted to push the boundaries of how municipal infrastructure was developed. We knew that we were going to have to do this under pretty strict fiscal constraints. And so that is why innovation became so important. We used the slogan The New Business As Usual to convey the message that, for change to really occur, practices that until then had been viewed as the exception must become the norm moving forward. With the new grant programs, we had some funding to support innovation,” stated Dale Wall.

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    DESIGN WITH NATURE TO CREATE LIVEABLE COMMUNITIES AND PROTECT STREAM HEALTH: “There are initiatives and programs flourishing today that had their beginnings in the Georgia Basin Initiative,” stated Joan Sawicki, land and resource management champion, and former provincial cabinet minister


    “And isn’t that how turning that supertanker of thinking happens? Just incrementally, then by gosh, we end up going in a whole different direction than we were when we started,” stated Joan Sawicki, Parliamentary Secretary for the Georgia Basin Initiative. Launched in 1994, the GBI was a call to action by the provincial government led by Premier Mike Harcourt. The living legacy of the GBI is embedded in and embodied by the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative. The IREI is now in Year 13 and provides peer-based education among local governments.

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