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“It helps to look back to understand how we got to here. In 2000, DFO released Urban Stormwater Guidelines and Best Management Practices for Protection of Fish and Fish Habitat. That document set a direction. It got practitioners thinking about how to capture rainfall in order to reduce runoff volume and protect water quality. By 2007, however, we had concerns about how the document was being interpreted and applied. ‘Beyond the Guidebook 2007’ represented the initial course correction,” stated Corinio Salomi.

“The Ministry celebrates the Partnership’s latest success in bringing together four regional districts through an Inter-Regional Education Initiative,” stated Cairine MacDonald. “The Ministry looks forward to aligning efforts with the Partnership to further advance implementation of the ‘Beyond the Guidebook’ initiative. Collaboration across regional districts is the pathway to a consistent approach to water sustainability and green infrastructure policies and practices.”

“There are a lot of times when we in local government like to blame or put on senior governments the responsibility to provide the framework for doing something…but there are things that we in local government can do. We need to choose to be enabled,” stated Ray Fung. “So, what we mean by shared responsibility is that everyone has a role, and everyone can act…. all levels of government, developers, regulators, bureaucrats, consultants, planners, engineers.”

“Beyond the Guidebook reflects a ‘design with nature’ approach to climate change adaptation. The initiative builds on the guidance provided in the original Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia. It supports and/or complements other provincial initiatives that will influence the form and function of the built environment and green infrastructure. Collectively, these initiatives establish expectations,” wrote Glen Brown.

“We are using the slogan The New Business As Usual to convey the message that, for change to really occur, practices that until now have been viewed as the exception must become the norm moving forward. We have to build regulatory models and develop models of practice and expertise,” stated Dale Wall, Deputy Minister.

The Guidebook’s premise that land development and watershed protection can be compatible represented a radical shift in thinking in 2002. “Through implementation of ‘green infrastructure’ policies and practices, the desired outcome in going Beyond the Guidebook is to apply what we have learned at the site scale over the past five years…so that we can truly protect and/or restore stream health in urban watersheds”, stated Paul Ham in 2007.

“The workshop featured case studies from both sides of the Georgia Basin to facilitate a sharing of experiences. Municipal staff from around the Capital Region were invited, “stated Lehna Malmkvist. “Speakers represented several disciplines and various levels of government staff. We asked Kim Stephens to tie together the ideas from the day by integrating a number of key thoughts, including: where we want to go, where we need to go, and how to get there.”

The City of Surrey’s Fergus Creek watershed plan is a pilot for the Beyond the Guidebook initiative. “The science-based analytical methodology that we have validated through the Fergus Creek process now enables the City of Surrey and other local governments to explore the fundamental requirements both explicit and implicit in Federal Fisheries Guidelines for stream health and environmental protection. We will be implementing ‘green solutions’ as an alternative to conventional engineered ‘blue solutions’,” explained Remi Dube.

“We have been able to optimize the designs of mitigation works to both reduce the costs and to increase their effectiveness. In this manner we have gone Beyond the Guidebook in a rational and logical manner to reduce the total system requirements and cost,” stated Jim Dumont. “To accommodate the requirement to maintain stream health, advances in analysis techniques have led to a system that provides a quantitative analysis of both the potential erosion and the availability of aquatic habitat.”

Surrey’s Fergus Creek Watershed Plan is the pilot for Beyond the Guidebook. The plan is based entirely on implementing ‘green solutions’ as an alternative to conventional engineered ‘blue solutions’. “The Fergus Creek plan demonstrates how to protect stream health in the urban environment”, noted David Hislop. “In addition to rainwater capture on individual lots, the strategy for replicating natural infiltration processes includes creation of contiguous large-scale green corridors through the watershed.”