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BC local governments are sharing and learning from each other. Water balance tools and case study experience are in place. Local governments can move beyond traditional infrastructure asset management thinking to account for watershed systems as infrastructure assets. Beyond the Guidebook 2015 is a deliverable flowing from the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative. It is a progress report on how local governments are ‘learning by doing’ to implement affordable and effective science-based practices. It is the third in a series that builds on “Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia”.

“The ‘convening for action’ initiative is the best example of peer driven innovation that I have ever seen. It has led to nothing less than a quiet revolution in how we approach the design and construction of human settlements in British Columbia. 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.It was my job to implement regional growth management. We had not done something like that before. It was much more than pure land use planning,” stated Dale Wall.

“Beyond the Guidebook 2015 is a milestone accomplishment. The Partnership for Water Sustainability’s efforts to bring together five regional districts—Metro Vancouver, Capital Region, Cowichan Region, Nanaimo Region and Comox Valley—to implement the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative (IREI) has been particularly successful. The next phase of the IREI program through 2017 will add to Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery: A BC Framework and integrate watershed systems thinking and adaptation to a changing climate into asset management,” wrote Wes Shoemaker.

“One of my purposes in meeting with municipal staff representatives on a regional committee was to provide them with context and perspective for three landmark initiatives that came to fruition in 2014, namely: Water Sustainability Act, Develop with Care, and Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery. Together the three provide a platform for integrated and coordinated actions to protect watershed health. The goal is sustainable watershed systems. In a nutshell, this requires a change in thinking to restore hydrologic integrity after a watershed is developed,” stated Kim Stephens.

“Metro Vancouver is a founding partner regional district in the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative. Inter-regional sharing and cross-pollination of experiences helps everyone protect watershed health. Since September 2011, Kim Stephens has been meeting with the Metro Vancouver Utilities Committee to provide us with updates. The focus of his recent presentation was on Beyond the Guidebook 2015. connection between watershed health goals and municipal land development practices, and the value to local government from taking an asset management approach,” stated Darrell Mussatto.

“The Environmental Services Committee welcomed Kim Stephens and invited him to update the members about the CRD chapter in Beyond the Guidebook 2015. It means a lot that he says CRD experience shows that local governments can foster a new ‘land ethic’ through the region’s Integrated Watershed Management Strategy,” stated Judy Brownoff. The water quality monitoring program in the Capital Region has evolved from ‘stormwater-based thinking’ to ‘watershed-based thinking’. The genesis for the current Integrated Watershed Management Program is the Core Area Liquid Waste Management Plan.

“The Board appreciates that the story of the Comox Valley journey is told in Beyond the Guidebook 2015. It is almost a decade since the four local governments in our region volunteered to be a demonstration application for the province’s Living Water Smart program. And it is clear that the Comox Valley has benefitted from inter-regional collaboration. It was good timing to hear from Kim Stephens about what it means to explore a regional team approach that is guided by sharing of experience about targets for achieving watershed health,” stated Bruce Joliffe, Chair.

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 Board appreciated hearing directly from Kim Stephens that the RDN is recognized by other regions for our leadership as an early adopter of a regional team approach to water and watershed management. As Kim emphasized during his presentation, sharing of success stories would help to encourage a new land ethic among land and water practitioners in this region and other regions. It means a lot to this Board to know that RDN staff are playing a leadership role in the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative and that the RDN story is told in Beyond the Guidebook 2015,” stated Bill Veenhof.

“Recognizing and celebrating the many champions in local government is all part of creating our future. And when we ask ‘what will this community look like in 50 years’, we can point to the green infrastructure examples and then we will know what it will look like in 50 years. We must all be leaders who selflessly have a vision, and we must then act to make the vision a reality. When I was chair, the Regional Board approved realigning the goals, strategies and actions in the updated Liquid Waste Management Plan with policies and positions in Living Water Smart,” stated Mayor Lois Jackson.