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“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 British Columbia landscape is being transformed by settlement and economic growth. The Stormwater Planning Guidebook recognized that water volume is something over which local government has control through its infrastructure policies, practices and standards. ‘Beyond the Guidebook’ builds on this foundation by advancing a runoff-based approach and tool – the ‘Water Balance Model powered by QUALHYMO’– to help local governments achieve desired urban stream health and environmental protection outcomes at a watershed scale,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

”The approach that we are taking is to set the goal. As a result, we are seeing people in local governments leapfrogging each other to see how close they can get to the goal,” stated Chris Jensen.In his closing remarks, he made it clear to the audience that: “In terms of providing you with a road map, today’s expectations are the standards of tomorrow. At the Ministry, we believe that change for the better will be created through the combination of education and financial incentives.”

Corino Salomi described the Beyond the Guidebook as a ‘must read’ because of the way it provides a synopsis of what is most relevant and useful. “While we need to have volume reduction targets, at the end of the day it is how effectively we apply the suite of available rainwater management tools that will ultimately determine whether we will succeed in protecting stream health at a watershed scale,” stated Corino.

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 Cowichan region is an incubator for ‘watershed systems thinking’ and application of Water Balance tools. A key message in the presentation by Kim Stephens is that there are three pathways by which rainwater makes its way to a stream. “Board members learned that each pathway is an infrastructure asset. And if each pathway is an asset, then each provides a Water Balance service. Having this understanding will help the Cowichan region align local actions with the provincial policy framework,” stated Mary Marcotte, Chair of the Regional Services Committee.

“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.”