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The 45 actions and targets in Living Water Smart, BC’s Water Plan establish expectations vis-à-vis how land will be developed (or redeveloped) and how water will be used. “Living Water Smart acknowledges that what government does is only part of the solution. Living Water Smart challenges all British Columbians to step up and be water stewards. Embrace shared responsibility. Create a legacy for those who follow in our footsteps,” states Lynn Kriwoken, Executive Director in the Ministry of Environment.

“Adaptation is local in application. The Province has developed information and tools to support practitioners and decision makers to take action at a local level. Sharing of knowledge and experience through ‘organic collaboration’ is also vital because peer-to-peer learning is what practitioners respect most,” states Thomas White, Manager, Climate Risk Management, Climate Action Secretariat (Ministry of Environment).

Looking into the future, collaboratively developed Water Sustainability Plans can integrate water and land use planning and can be combined with other local, regional or provincial planning processes to address water-related issues. “The scale and scope of each plan – and the process used to develop it – would be unique, and would reflect the needs and interests of the watersheds affected,” states Jennifer Vigano.

Develop with Care 2014 is a tool to engage with local governments, planners, developers and others involved in land use about the provincial mandate and issues. “Develop with Care 2014 incorporates the integration piece that now makes the direct connection to the Built Environment and the local government mandate. A focus on the Built Environment provides an opportunity to look at environmental protection from perspective of land use, and get out in front of issues,” stated Helene Roberge.

“Some communities are already anticipating and adapting to our changing climate, and they are using existing planning legislation and tools. Being able to start with good information about projected future conditions is key to assessing the risks and vulnerabilities of a particular location,” says Cathy Leblanc. “Each community is different and by developing its own strategies for mainstreaming adaptation into its decisions and operations, it will become more resilient.”

Several years in the making, the BC Framework is aligned with the asset management requirements for the Province’s capital grants programs, and is therefore a game-changer. “We can view asset management as a continuum. Communities will progress along it incrementally as their understanding grows,” states Liam Edwards. “They can achieve the goal of Sustainable Service Delivery for watershed systems.”

“The Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), in partnership with the Province and Asset Management BC, developed the BC Framework. It sets strategic direction for asset management and its implementation in BC,” states Wally Wells. “The BC Framework defines asset management as a continuous process (not a discrete task). The PLAN is only a part of the overall process. The PROCESS deals with all of the components necessary to manage the built and natural environments as integrated components.”

“Beyond the Guidebook 2015 introduces Dr. Daniel Pauly’s Shifting Baseline Syndrome to explain why communities unwittingly accept incremental and cumulative environmental degradation. It then adapts this thinking to focus on how communities can turn the clock back to replicate desired conditions. This outcome would be achievable through an approach that is being branded as Sustainable Watershed Systems, through Asset Management,” explains Kim Stephens.

Shifting Baseline Syndrome refers to a gradual change in the accepted norm for ecological conditions. “Every generation will use the images that they got at the beginning of their conscious lives as a standard and will extrapolate forward. And the difference then, they perceive as a loss. But they don’t perceive what happened before as a loss. You can have a succession of changes. At the end you want to sustain miserable leftovers. And the question is, why do people accept this?,” stated Daniel Pauly.

In BC, a ‘learn-by-doing’ process is opening minds and building confidence that communities can re-set the ecological baseline and can replicate a desired watershed condition. According to Kim Stephens: “The Guidebook vision is that community development activities and further alteration of the Built Environment will result in cumulative benefits, not impacts. In 2002, the Guidebook identified a path forward for local governments.”