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STORYTELLING PLATFORM FOR SHOWCASING AN ECOSYSTEM-BASED APPROACH TO RAINWATER MANAGEMENT: “waterbucket.ca is a powerful communication platform. It allows Living Water Smart champions to record and share their history even as they are creating it, thus promoting peer-based learning,” stated Mike Tanner, founding chair of the intergovernmental waterbucket.ca partnership

Note to Reader:

Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. Stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway, Editor’s Perspective and Context for Busy Reader, and the Story Behind the Story. 

The edition published on April 15, 2025 featured Mike Tanner, founding chair of the Waterbucket.ca Website Partnership and celebrated the 20th anniversary of the launch of waterbucket.ca in April 2025. The combination of waterbucket.ca and the Waterbucket eNews newsletter gives champions in the local government and stewardship sectors a platform and voice for telling their stories.  The One-Minute Takeaway and the Editor’s Perspective are presented below.

 

20th anniversary of waterbucket.ca, storytelling platform

“Twenty years ago this week, BC Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection Bill Barisoff made the announcement in Penticton the day we went live with the waterbucket.ca website. Keep in mind the context. In the early 2000s, websites were in their infancy,” recalls Mike Tanner.

 

Waterbucket.ca is one of six original elements of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for BC

“In 2004. a consortium of provincial and regional organizations and federal agencies came together under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan to form a partnership and provide funding to create waterbucket.ca. BC Hydro Power Smart provided the seed funding that set everything in motion.”

 

 

“Aside from the trust factor, the success of waterbucket.ca as a platform for peer-based learning has added to the credibility of the Partnership for Water Sustainability. How many websites are there like waterbucket.ca that have been able to do it for the length of time that we have, yet still remain current?”

 

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE / CONTEXT FOR BUSY READER

“The 20th anniversary of the waterbucket.ca website is an opportunity for celebration as well as reflection. An intergovernmental partnership funded development of waterbucket.ca to support an Ecosystem-Based Approach to land development and water use,” stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews Editor and Partnership Executive Director.

 

waterbucket.ca is a platform for an ecosystem-based approach

“With the passage of time, people either forget about or never knew what my generation or previous generations were trying to do and why. With that thought as context, a recent observation by legendary foreign affairs commentator Thomas Friedman resonates with me. What he stated in an interview is a reminder of the importance, relevance and power of storytelling.”

 

 

“Storytelling has never been more important. The combination of waterbucket.ca and Waterbucket eNews gives champions in the local government and stewardship sectors a voice for telling their stories. We have a communications platform and we share the stories behind their stories.”

 

Somebody had to put up the initial seed funding for waterbucket.ca and that is what Mike Tanner brought to mission possible

“Mike Tanner is the waterbucket.ca visionary. His leadership got the website off the ground and online within 12 months of the inaugural meeting of founding partners. He did the heavy lifting that brought together provincial ministries and so many others for a common purpose.”

“Somebody had to put up the initial seed funding to build support for the waterbucket.ca idea. And that is what I was able to bring from BC Hydro with a $5000 contribution from the Power Smart program,” recalls Mike Tanner.

 

“Twelve months after the inaugural meeting of the Waterbucket.ca Partnership, the announcement by Minister Barisoff formally launched the waterbucket.ca website. Lynn Kriwoken primed the Minister on the drive to Penticton,” continues Kim Stephens.

 

Influencing change through peer-based learning

“In 2006, I stepped into the breach as a volunteer to takeover from Joanne de Vries as Waterbucket Editor when we lost our Environment Canada funding after Stephen Harper became prime minister. This was supposed to be stop-gap but I got hooked and 20 years later the mission continues. And I love it!”

“Mike Tanner and I have been colleagues for over thirty years. Even so, the conversational interview for this story provided me with fresh insights into the crucial part his Power Smart experience played.”

To Learn More:

Waterbucket eNews stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway, Editor’s Perspective and Context for Busy Reader, and the Story Behind the Story. To read the complete 3-part storyline, download a copy of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: waterbucket.ca, Storytelling Platform for an Ecosystem-Based Approach to Land and Water Use.

 

DOWNLOAD A COPY:  https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/04/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Mike-Tanner-and-20-years-of-waterbucket.ca_2025.pdf