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Georgia Basin Initiative

    GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE: “We have shown that this partnership model works where the community groups collect the data and we can ensure that it is of a quality that meets government standards,” stated Ally Badger, biologist with Aquatic Research & Restoration Centre of the BC Conservation Foundation, and coordinator for Vancouver Island Community Flow Monitoring Network


    “Monitoring flow involves much more than throwing a datalogger in the stream. Getting reliable and useful data takes a lot of effort and hands-on work. Stewardship groups have the passion, interest and people power to actually go out there and do the hands-on work. They just need a bit of help. I coordinate groups and distribute the training and help coordinate people to actually do the monitoring.It is an adaptive approach to see what works, learn the lessons, and then figure out how to overcome challenges that we have experienced along the way,” stated Ally Badger.

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    GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE: “Communities and successive generations of their elected representatives and staffs must commit and recommit to restoring functional watersheds and streams. When they do, we will be successful in achieving this inter-generational outcome,” stated the late Erik Karlsen, former Director of Growth Strategies in the BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs


    Erik Karlsen was an extraordinary individual. His legacy lives on through the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative. The IREI is the successor to the Georgia Basin Initiative which the Province launched in 1994. Many individuals have played important roles in the green infrastructure movement in British Columbia. The late Erik Karlsen was the common thread and a source of inspiration for implementing an ecosystem-based approach in the built environment. The legacy of Erik Karlsen is rippling through time through the work of the Partnership.

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    GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE: “There is hope because we are seeing renewed interest by local governments to talk about how to operationalize Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery,” stated Arnold Schwabe, Executive Director with Asset Management BC


    Arnold Schwabe’s focus is on what local governments are supposed to do. Too often, he observes, councils do not understand the purposes and function of local government. “When I receive requests to talk to elected officials,” he says, “that opens the door for me to help them understand that their job is about the service not the assets. Downloading is a real issue and local governments are frustrated with the Province. I say that from the perspective of someone whose career experience over 35 years includes working for and with all three levels of government.”

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “Knowing what we know, it is not as simple as going from an X to a tick mark in each column of the table of cascading factors,” stated Ray Fung, past-chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership (2008-2011)


    Nine cascading factors that must be in alignment to implement a course correction. At the top of the list of cascading factors is political leadership and commitment to the shared vision. Leadership boils down to a willingness to act and bring together other champions willing to provide the type of energy and organizational drive that overcomes inertia. “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.,” stated Ray Fung.

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “Cities are all about choices – choices that become reality very quickly, with lasting consequences. Over the 21st century – the urban century – much will depend upon getting the choices right,” stated Mike Harcourt, the former Premier of British Columbia whose leadership made possible the Growth Strategies Act (5th installment in a preview series)


    “How do we manage the number of people that are moving into the Georgia Basin when we have a very tough geography where the urban space is pretty limited by the sea and the mountains, and by rivers and agricultural land and park wilderness. When you take all that out, there is not a lot of land for urban development and an urban population. We need to act quickly to avoid the situation faced by other large urbanizing regions,” stated Mike Harcourt.

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION : “Local governments need a real number based on financial value if they want to get natural assets into their management plans on a regular basis. EAP gives them that,” stated Tim Pringle, Chair of the Ecological Accounting Process (EAP)


    “The question we asked was, how do you find that number? Well, we can treat a stream as a land use because we have the Riparian Areas Protection Regulation and we have BC Assessment for land values. The rest of it is the methodology that does the right calculation. Local governments have a spatial way of looking at land use. EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, is a spatial view because the methodology is keyed to parcels which is as spatial as you can get. EAP allows local governments to explore the financial impact of land development choices,” stated Tim Pringle.

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “There is no question that we have come a long way in overcoming memory loss in regional growth management and the future looks promising,” stated Ken Cameron, co-architect of Metro Vancouver’s Livable Region Strategic Plan in the 1990s (4th installment in a preview series)


    “In Spring 2023, a group of us had meetings with Metro Vancouver planning staff to pass on our knowledge and experience. Our message was, use the strengths of the unique regional planning system you have. We did this in the interest of providing current and future Metro planning staff with some personal background on the people and, in some cases, organizations, that influenced the preparation and adoption of the Livable Region Strategic Plan in 1996 and the subsequent evolution of the planning function,” stated Ken Cameron.

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    EAP TRANSITION STRATEGY PARTNERSHIP: “If we apply EAP to land owned by the RDN to help prove that Natural Asset Management is meaningful, then I see that as the trigger to influence other owners of land to behave in a similar fashion,” stated Murray Walters, Manager of Water Services with the Regional District of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island


    “You have to de-silo. You cannot operate in silos where everyone is trying to grab more turf all the time. You need to operate in an environment where people are not afraid to go talk and tell you what they are doing and what they want to help with. We cannot always help them and they cannot always help us either. But we are talking about it these days. Internal collaboration does not happen overnight. You must have initial successes to build relationships. That is what the French Creek EAP project represents. It will feed into other studies,” stated Murray Walters.

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    EAP TRANSITION STRATEGY PARTNERSHIP: “The City of Nanaimo is all-in for EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process. When the EAP Partnership idea came up, the most attractive element was the ability to pass on the torch,” stated Bill Sims, General Manager of Engineering and Public Works


    “The EAP program is embedded in our Integrated Action Plan. This supports City Plan: Nanaimo Reimagined which provides direction for the coming 25 years on everything…land use, transportation, climate adaptation, etc. We made sure EAP is part of that. It is firmly rooted,” stated Bill Sims. “Our commitment derives from the Community Charter where one of the Council’s primary duties is stewardship of the community’s assets. We are getting better and better all the time at stewarding the gray infrastructure assets. Now we must do the same with natural assets.”

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “When I reflect on how the memory loss issue is playing out, top of mind for me is that every area of local government needs a champion,” stated Pete Steblin, former City Manager in the Metro Vancouver region, when he reflected on how the past informs the future (3rd installment of a preview series)


    “When there is no champion, that area gets left in the dust. Of course every champion does need to put forward a compelling case for their area. At the end of the day, however, there just are not enough resources in an ongoing way to deal with all the issues. So, choices are made between competing issues and competing champions. What I see missing at times is an understanding of the linkages within a local government system. It is easy to forget there are other needs that have to be considered and balanced,” stated Pete Steblin.

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