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BC Water Sustainability Action Plan

    CONVENING FOR ACTION AT THE 2024 BC LAND SUMMIT: “Held in Nanaimo, the summit is the event of record for announcing that henceforth Vancouver Island University will be known as the home for the EAP Centre of Excellence,” stated Kim Stephens, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Sustainability (May 2024)


    “Held every five years as a 3-day event, the BC Land Summit is a watershed moment for showcasing new ideas. The Partnership delivered a 2-part program to introduce Blue Ecology and the Ecological Accounting Process. Because the audience comprised players involved in the land professions, the Partnership hopes that the summit will prove to be a seminal moment in sparking an attitude change about land and water. Time will tell,” stated Kim Stephens. “Everyone on the team delivered. The storylines flowed. The audience engagement was terrific. That is THE MEASURE of success!”

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    GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE: “You can bend the hydrology of a watershed for the better over decades just because of the housing redevelopment cycle. But you get just one chance every 50 years to get it right.” stated Robert Hicks, career engineer-planner in local government in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia


    Robert Hicks was the internal champion at Metro Vancouver for creating the Water Balance Methodology and Model for scenario comparison purposes. Such comparisons were transformational in helping decision makers visualize HOW their municipalities could meet watershed targets and mitigate population growth and climate change. “Metro Vancouver had the budget to fund the early work on the Water Balance Methodology and thus bridge the source control information gap. What we learned from the 50-year scenario comparisons became a foundation piece for BC’s Stormwater Planning Guidebook,” stated Robert Hicks.

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    GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE: “Those who forged their career on the basis of the old will never admit to the wrong precedent. These are the counter-revolutionary forces!” stated Dr. Younes Alila, professional engineer and professor in the UBC Faculty of Forestry


    “The story of my forest hydrology research over the past 30 years is actually a traumatizing story,” stated Younes Alila. “Most of the landscapes in British Columbia and most of our watersheds are sitting at a very heightened risk when it comes to hydrology and geomorphology. The risks are greater than we were led to believe by government, industry, and professionals. Now the genie is out of the bottle regarding RISK and LIABILITY. Once they know about the science of extremes and frequency, professionals have a duty to protect the public and properly advise policy makers.”

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    GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE: “We framed a Design With Nature approach to community development in terms of six objectives that would reduce risk and liability,” stated Ray Fung, a retired Director of Engineering in local government, and former Chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership


    “When we brought four groups together in 2003 and founded the Green Infrastructure Partnership, the term green infrastructure was not in the local government lexicon, whether in BC or beyond. We essentially adapted Smart Growth principles, albeit in action-oriented soundbites, to create a new mind-map with six objectives for designing with nature,” stated Ray Fung. “Designing with nature captures the essence of climate change adaptation. Adaptation is about responding to the changes that will inevitably occur. Adaptation is at the community level and is therefore about collaboration.”

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    GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE: “We had big goals. We had a lot of practitioners at the local government level who wanted to innovate, and we had a lot of political interest in how to do this,” stated Dale Wall, former Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs


    “Moving into the 2000s, the Green Infrastructure Partnership was bringing practitioners together in Metro Vancouver to have conversations about innovation. It was the convening for action process that built confidence among practitioners to introduce these approaches. It was a peer learning network that the Partnership was building. And that was one of the strands to introduce infrastructure innovation and build more sustainable regions. It was a conversation between practitioners who said, I tried that and this is how it worked or did not work, or this is what I learned,” stated Dale Wall.

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    GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE: “With the change of government in late 1991, all of a sudden land use planning and natural resource management was front and centre, and I really wanted something substantive to do,” stated Joan Sawicki, land and resource management champion, and former provincial cabinet minister


    “There was a clear understanding and consensus on the challenges – that the Georgia Basin was one of the most ecologically diverse regions and also one of the most threatened. There was trouble in paradise. All communities knew they were under intense pressures and that we had to do something about it. With a strong Minister of Municipal Affairs, Darlene Marzari, the ‘settlement side’ of land use planning went straight into regional planning and the Growth Strategies Act. We also had been given a clear vision along with sustainability principles,” stated Joan Sawicki.

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    CONVENING FOR ACTION AT THE BC LAND SUMMIT: “The 3-year transition strategy for embedding EAP at Vancouver Island University has multiple layers and partnerships, with several moving parts to balance,” stated stated Anna Lawrence, Project Coordinator, Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute at VIU


    “Absorb, communicate. and refine the communication. I am very focused on the 3-year transition strategy because Year One was just trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible. And so, in Year Two I think it is time to begin that communication process. And Year Three will be refining that communication process. In Year One, it was a juggling process with many moving parts and trying to keep them all in balance. And so, we look forward to sharing our EAP experience at the BC Land Summit,” stated Anna Lawrence.

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    GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE: “Vancouver Island University is all-in because EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, is an idea that can change the game and students are excited to contribute to the change,” stated Graham Sakaki of Vancouver Island University


    “The story behind the story is about the importance of embedding knowledge of EAP into the youth who are going to be the future of our local governments. The framework that we have set up ensures this will happen. There are lots of partnerships that exist for selfish reasons. But the EAP Partnership is selfless, and from all angles. It is a leap of faith for member local governments. Partnership for Water Sustainability commitment to passing the baton is unwavering,” stated Graham Sakaki when he spoke about the 3-year transition strategy to embed EAP at Vancouver Island University.

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    GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE: “A defining moment for me was the Salmon in the City Conference in 1998. It was a memorable event,” stated Susan Haid, career environmental and urban planner in BC local government, and adjunct assistant professor at the University of British Columbia


    “It is really heartening to observe the recent renewed interest in what I think of as ecosystem-based planning and is now often called green and blue systems in cities,” stated Susan Haid. “It sounds simple, but it is heartening because this has NOT really been a key theme in the public dialogue for some time. The pandemic has reminded us of the importance of green space and access to nature. It is even more important now because in 1997 we did not have the kind of weather extremes such as atmospheric rivers and heat domes that we are now regularly experiencing.”

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    CONNECTED BY WATER: “While inter-regional collaboration was the context for my conversational interview with Zoe Norcross-Nu’u, the story behind the story went in an unexpected direction,” stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket Editor


    “Zoe Norcross-Nu’u, a marine scientist who previously taught at the University of Hawaii Maui College, is in her second decade with Comox Valley Regional District after joining in 2012. Her responsibilities revolve around the Comox Lake Watershed Protection Plan. At the end of our conversation, Zoe connected her reflections about Hawaii and interweaving Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science to Blue Ecology, the water-first approach that bridges cultures. Zoe represents the Comox Valley Regional District on the Partnership’s Watershed Moments Team,” stated Km Stephens.

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