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Erik Karlsen

    HISTORY OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Many individuals have played important roles in the green infrastructure movement in British Columbia. The late Erik Karlsen was the common thread and a source of inspiration for implementing an ecosystem-based approach in the built environment,” stated Kim Stephens of the Partnership for Water Sustainability


    “Erik Karlsen bridged the worlds of municipal affairs and environmental stewardship. For a generation of elected representatives, his was a familiar face in the local government setting. He was influential and his influence was far reaching while he was alive. His rippling through time through the work of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in leading the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative. He was a thought leader and change agent. Erik Karlsen has a special place in the history of the Partnership. His memory lives on,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    CHAMPION FOR AN ECOSYSTEM-BASED APPROACH: “Sustainable and resilient are complementary terms that draw attention to the future and help focus thought and action. However, use of resilient more clearly shines the spotlight on Context, Intent and Results,” stated the late Erik Karlsen, former Director of Growth Strategies in the BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs (3rd in a series)


    Erik Karlsen had a remarkable impact on the shape of BC communities. This came through his influence on BC planning law and policy, his even greater influence on adoption of new planning practices, and his role in building professional networks that shaped community planning. He was tireless at building networks and at mentoring professionals. He was always where the action was – where creative and innovative energies were flowing. His ability to gravitate to that action – and to ‘morph’ into whatever current political form it was taking – was a real feature of Erik’s career.

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    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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    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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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION IN METRO VANCOUVER: “It is really heartening to observe the recent renewed interest in what I think of as ecosystem-based planning and is now often called green and blue systems in cities,” stated Susan Haid, career environmental and urban planner in BC local government


    Susan Haid has played a leadership role in trailblazing an ecosystem-based approach to community planning in British Columbia. “It sounds simple, but it is heartening because this has NOT really been a key theme in the public dialogue for some time. The pandemic has reminded us of the importance of green space and access to nature,” stated Susan Haid. “It is even more important now because in the 1990s we did not have the kind of weather extremes such as atmospheric rivers and heat domes we are now regularly experiencing. There is a resurgence of ideas that is influencing policy making!”

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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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    DELTA’S RAIN GARDEN PROGRAM FOR STREETSCAPE REVITALIZATION: “The road designers are taking the initiative to incorporate linear rain gardens,” stated Harvy Singh Takhar, Utilities Engineer with the City of Delta in Metro Vancouver


    “By working with the roads people on curb cuts, we have actually come up with variations. Our original detail was quite generic. Now we are able to implement it in various types of curb designs. We are striving to make sure that rain garden maintenance is as easy as possible, including inlets and outlets for drainage. We have evolved the designs so it is EASY CLEAN for all the sediment buildup. Our crews can quickly scoop it with a shovel and be on their way! That change resulted from feedback from engineering operations staff regarding what they wanted to see. We just evolved the design as per their operational needs,” stated Harvy Takhar.

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    DESIGN WITH NATURE TO CREATE LIVEABLE COMMUNITIES AND PROTECT STREAM HEALTH: “Broaden our standards so that we have the plethora of solutions on the table. It starts with education, at both the institutional and government levels, to understand why green infrastructure is necessary. And then, apply those broader solutions,” stated Hugh Fraser, former Deputy Director of Engineering, City of Delta


    “Drainage is but a sub-set of municipal engineering. Historical engineering practice did not consider some of the broader objectives that we now try to address through green infrastructure. Drainage in the context of urban planning and development decisions has historically been an afterthought,” stated Hugh Fraser. “Delta urban areas are built out. The municipality is effectively limited to retrofitting of rain gardens within road corridors in order to provide rainwater infiltration that protects stream health. Road rights-of-way account for one-third of the land area of a typical urban watershed.”

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    DESIGN WITH NATURE TO CREATE LIVEABLE COMMUNITIES AND PROTECT STREAM HEALTH: “There was tension between stakeholders. Yet the productiveness of those dialogues inspired a lot of professionals, myself included, to dig deeper and find solutions and learn. You felt like you were part of a movement,” recalled Susan Haid, career environmental and urban planner in BC local government


    Susan Haid has played a leadership role in trailblazing an ecosystem-based approach to community planning in British Columbia. “The 1990s was a very instrumental time of policy and regulation development. And municipal dialogue too. The discussions around the Fish Protection Act had a huge influence shifting perspectives to a bigger scale. The course that I teach at UBC is about how policy frameworks shape urban design. Building in resiliency to our cities from the site level to the regional level could NOT be more critical than now,” stated Susan Haid.

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