Vancouver Island Water

CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “You can have a succession of changes. At the end you want to sustain miserable leftovers. We adjust our baseline. And the question is, why do people accept this? Well, because they don’t know that it was different,” stated UBC’s Daniel Pauly, a legendary global fisheries scientist, when he coined the term Shifting Baseline Syndrome in 1995 (1st installment of a preview series)

Note to Reader:

Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. The edition published on September 17^th 2024 is the first of a series of reflections that preview the SYNOPSIS for the Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver (1994-2024). The release date for the Synopsis is November 2024.

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Solutions to complex problems require deep knowledge – preview extract from the Synopsis for the “Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in the Metro Vancouver Region (1994-2024)”

Launched in 1994, the Georgia Basin Initiative was a call to action by the provincial government of the day. “There was trouble in paradise. All communities knew they were under intense pressure and that we had to do something about it,” says Joan Sawicki, former provincial cabinet minister, and champion for the Georgia Basin Initiative.

“There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. Just turn it. The living legacy of the Georgia Basin Initiative is embedded and embodied in the successor Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative (IREI). Three decades and counting is an amazing legacy. The IREI itself is in Year 13,” adds Kim Stephens, Executive Director with the Partnership for Water Sustainability.

Turn the wheel, overcome amnesia

“Solutions to complex problems transcend line items in a report. A set of cascading factors must all be in alignment to effect change,” emphasizes Kim Stephens. “The table below illustrates how the Metro Vancouver region has regressed from a situation where many things were in alignment to one where few are in alignment.”

“Keeping the last column of the table in mind, how will provincial and local governmentsOVERCOME ORGANIZATIONAL AMNESIA? Political leadership and commitment is essential. Elected leaders just have to understand WHY a livable region is important and then commit to a plan to make it happen.”

A defining statement characterizes each era:

With new political commitment, rebuild the coalition for the Livable Region Plan

“Knowing what we know, it is not as simple as going from an X to a tick mark in each column. You have to build new political commitment and basically start all over again in a new crucible phase…where you coalition-build to develop a new shared vision, etc.,” states Ray Fung, retired director of municipal engineering and transportation.

In the 2000s. Ray Fung chaired the BC Water Sustainability Committee (2003-2008) and the Green Infrastructure Partnership (2008-2010), Both were rolled into the Partnership for Water Sustainability upon incorporation as a non-profit legal entity in 2010.

Leveraging a political moment – an illustrative example:

“One of my legacy projects was implementing a universal water metering program. It is one example of leveraging a political moment and making a difference for water use and conservation.”

“The municipality was in the media spotlight because we were perceived to be the region’s water hogs. This was not a label that Council wanted to own or wear. The other factor that helped get support for universal metering was human nature.”

“You believe it is your neighbour who is wasting water, not you. And you do not want to subsidize your neighbour who waters their lawn 24 hours a day. It was that self-interest plus political commitment that was more persuasive than language about equity, efficiency and water conservation benefits.”

“But what would leveraging political commitment and self-interest look like for rainwater management and riparian forest integrity in today’s context? What combination will it take to effect change?”

Springboard to 2025 and beyond

“The task at hand is about how to redefine things in a new political environment so you would be able to get a new vision and new political commitment. This is how you ride the curve from a new crucible period to another golden period. Learn from past experience. There is no time to reinvent the wheel.”

“Housing affordability is an issue and more people in the same area of land means increasing housing density. But as you go up, you need more park and open space. The need for tree cover becomes even more grave to reduce the heat island effect.”

“When you function stack, stream corridors for drainage and habitat can also be recreation corridors for enjoyment of nature. And that is needed to keep up with the housing density going up. Packaging and framing it that way rides that curve. It is the only way to build political support,” concludes Ray Fung.