"Learning Lunch Seminar Series" promotes consistent provincial approach to rainwater management in BC
Common Understanding and Consistent Approach
The Learning Lunch Seminar Series promotes a consistent provincial approach to rainwater management and green infrastructure. The Cowichan Valley Regional District and City of Courtenay are the host local governments for the Vancouver Island pilot program. In total, the Vancouver Island local governments that will be participating represent some 250,000 people.
- The Cowichan Valley series comprised a set of three sessions held during the June – July 2008 period. For links to each seminar in the series, click here.
- The three sessions comprising the Comox Valley series are scheduled for the September – November 2008 period.
The Learning Lunch Seminar Series is the first step in building a regional team approach so that there will be a common understanding and consistent messaging regarding on-the-ground expectations for rainwater management and green infrastructure. The Seminar Series is part of the implementation program for Beyond the Guidebook: The New Business As Usual, and is precedent-setting in its scope.
Create Liveable Communities & Protect Stream Health
This provincial initiative builds on the foundation provided by Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia, published in 2002, and incorporates lessons learned over the past six years in moving from planning to action.
CAVI – Convening for Action on Vancouver Island
This pilot is being implemented under the umbrella of CAVI – Convening for Action on Vancouver Island. CAVI is co-funded by the Real Estate Foundation, the Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Community Development. The shared vision is to move toward water sustainability by implementing green infrastructure policies and practices.
The seminars are designed to provide an inter-departmental learning opportunity,” explains CAVI Chair John Finnie, General Manager Environmental Services with the Regional District of Nanaimo. ” By spreading the curriculum over three sessions, this enables participants to absorb the new information, blend it with their own experience, and eventually apply it in making decisions.”
Cowichan Valley Seminar Series
“Each session in the Learning Lunch Seminar Series started at 11:00am and ended at 2:30pm,” reports Peter Nilsen (Deputy Engineer, District of North Cowichan) of the inter-governmental Cowichan Valley Organizing Committee. “Our experience is that this is the right length of time to maintain the interest and energy level of participants. Three and a half hours sounds like a lot of time, but it goes quickly; and we were just scratching the surface in terms of the material that we presented.”
To Learn More:
To download a summary document that consolidates under one cover the set of Water Bucket stories describing the content of each seminar, click on this link to 2008 Cowichan Valley Learning Lunch Seminar Series.
Consistency at the front counter
“Within the Cowichan Valley Regional District, there are five local government jurisdictions; and the same group of developers and development consultants have projects in all or most of those jurisdictions,” stated Peter Nilsen during a group brainstorming session held outdoors at Seminar #3. “It therefore becomes essential that developers and their consultants hear a consistent message regarding rainwater management and green infrastructure expectations when doing business at the front counters in each of those jurisdictions.”