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“Water is a great metaphor for collaborative leadership. It overcomes obstacles with its constant presence; moving over, around or wearing down. Today our world is facing some big challenges, economically, socially, environmentally, politically. Yet it has taken the global tsunami of COVID-19 for us to potentially wake up. In times of crisis, although difficult, beauty can emerge. An opportunity exists in the space between what was and what will be. What will this be for us in British Columbia? Well that depends on every one of us,” stated Kathy Bishop.

Leadership Vancouver Island (LVI) was founded in 2005 in response a growing need for increased leadership capacity within Vancouver Island businesses, organization, and local government. “Our mission is to seek out and cultivate potential and emerging leaders. The program goal is to prepare community leaders across BC to take an active role in moving their communities forward by working with them to foster a better understanding of how the issues impacting their communities are interconnected and by forging stronger relationships among community and regional leaders,” stated Patrick Ross.

“CAVI, Convening for Action on Vancouver Island, had done a lot of work on fresh water sustainability and wanted to expand the coalition. The Dialogue in Nanaimo presented an opportunity for CAVI and Leadership BC to join forces, collaborate, and together connect with new audiences. The ‘Dialogue in Nanaimo’ was structured around a water sustainability panel. Rather than talking heads, the panel engaged in a form of ‘improv theatre’ to feed off each other in spontaneously expressing key messages about water,” stated Kathy Bishop.

“What is the Dialogue in Nanaimo about? We want to entertain you a little bit. We want to engage you. We want to show you an atypical presentation – that is, a few vignettes taking a wander throughout the world of water sustainability. So, why are we doing this today? We want to structure some dialogue that perhaps will create some networking for the future. What outcome do we want? We would hope that the individuals in this room would learn some more about this incredibly critical component of our lives. We want you to seek, greet and meet folks in this room; and find out what other people are doing,” stated Patrick Ross.

The Dialogue in Nanaimo was organized and facilitated by Kathy Bishop of Leadership Vancouver Island, She recruited a team of and knowledgeable individuals who were willing to participate in an ‘improv theatre’ format rather than make formal presentations. “It was a team-building process, with the objective of becoming comfortable with the ‘improv format’. Kathy was doing her PhD at the University of Victoria, and we were part of her applied research. We came together as a team, and our camaraderie was on display for all to see on the day of the Dialogue.”

“Farmers are saying it is not the big storms that cause them problems. Rather, it is all the little storms. All the water from the uplands is just enough that the farmers cannot get on their land and plant or harvest their crops. Development in the uplands is affecting the way we are trying to manage agriculture. So we need to change the way we are doing things in the uplands. It is about replenishing the groundwater,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

“Beyond the Guidebook 2010 is really the story of convening for action for water sustainability. It is about what we are calling the ‘new business as usual’. We have the tools. We have the knowledge. We know what to do on the ground. It is just a matter of applying those things when we are talking about development opportunities,” stated John FInnie. “We really need to change the way we think about land use and development. The goal is to be water-centric. The key to this way-of-thinking is the idea of ‘designing with nature’.”

“We have had the guts to start this dialogue, but we will also need bigger guts to complete what we started. Part of the process is summarizing what we heard today, inviting people back to the table to talk about what we have determined in that summary, and then putting together a plan of action together for moving forward. When we have that plan in draft format, we will be hosting a breakout session at the State of the Island Summit ,” stated Cori Lynn Germiquet.

“Before I came to the session, I did not know much about water sustainability. But now I do. What I learned reinforces the complex layers of the challenges that we face. Our objective was to identify some of the issues, inform some people, create some initial hope with some initial solutions, and stimulate some dialogue. When I watched the discussion in the small groups, we certainly stimulated dialogue. We cannot just leave it here. It is not acceptable, in terms of a leadership realm, to have a dialogue and not complete the cycle,” stated Paul Ross.

“It was serendipity that brought together the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance (VIEA) and members of the ‘CAVI-Leadership in Fresh Water Sustainability’ leadership team at the Dialogue in Nanaimo. The success of this event set the stage for CAVI participation in the State of the Island Summit in October, organized by VIEA. An outcome of the Summit is that VIEA has made collaboration with CAVI a priority in its Strategic Plan. Another outcome is that VIEA is now represented on the CAVI Leadership Team,” stated Kim Stephens.