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“After ten years of involvement with the Partnership for Water Sustainability, I feel as committed as ever. At times, I find myself amazed at the collective expertise of the volunteers who work in Partnership initiatives. Their wisdom makes the work of the Partnership efficient; it allows a great deal to be done with very limited dollars. We collaborate with practitioners as equals and take services to their territories,” states Tim Pringle.

In his 1969 book, Design With Nature, Ian McHarg pioneered the concept of environmental planning. “So, I commend Design with Nature to your sympathetic consideration. The title contains a gradient of meaning. It can be interpreted as simply descriptive of a planning method, deferential to places and peoples, it can invoke the Grand Design, it can emphasize the conjunction with and, finally it can be read as an imperative. DESIGN WITH NATURE!,” wrote Ian McHarg.

“Our story is about what it means for a group of people to share a vision and make a long-term personal and professional commitment to creating a better future in the regions of BC. We challenge our audiences by asking ‘What do you want this place to look like in 50 years’ because the decisions that we make today will ripple through time,” states Kim Stephens.

Their experience covers the continuum from developing provincial policy and tools to implementing actions on the ground.

“Released in 2008, ‘Living Water Smart, BC’s Water Plan’ identified 45 actions and targets that established expectations as to how land will be developed and water will be used in BC. To make it possible to achieve a number of those targets and actions, the Province led development of a suite of tools. These tools are all web-based and support enhanced approaches to water management,” reports Ted van der Gulik.

“Rainwater management and climate change adaptation are topics of high interest for Atlantic communities. They will benefit from knowledge-sharing and insights from experiences on the West Coast. Those experiences include developing tools and solutions that are intended to help BC adapt to a changing climate,” says Jocelyne Rankin.

“In Quebec, guidelines are requirements. Similar to British Columbia practice, the goal of Quebec’s Rainwater Management Guide is to manage all rainfall events, large and small. The design objective is to ‘reproduce the natural condition’. This is equivalent to the approach in BC which is expressed as ‘mimic the natural water balance’. Like BC, we recognize the need to reduce runoff volume by infiltrating rainwater where it falls,” explains Gilles Rivard.

“Our staff and community partners have an opportunity to learn about potentially different ways to manage stormwater runoff in urbanizing and changing watersheds. This workshop is an accessible means to learn about how British Columbia is attempting to reduce the impact of traditional stormwater management policies and practices; and to learn about the water budget analysis tool that they have developed,” states Don Maciver.

“The Series could be the springboard to an annual convening of those practitioners who are leading change across the country. In ‘convening for action’, it would be about sharing what the champions in each province are doing. Sharing of stories is a powerful way of inspiring others to do things differently. Showcasing the ‘BC story’ supports what we would like to accomplish in the Toronto region,” stated Glenn MacMillan.

“Back in 2004 folks from the Pacific Northwest visited Alberta to talk about their learnings in sustainable stormwater management. Those discussions were part of the early impetus to the formation of the ALIDP – the Alberta Low Impact Development Partnership. Ten years later, how has rainwater management evolved in BC? How does it compare to Alberta and the rest of Canada?,” stated Leta van Duin.