Water-Centric Planning

“The partnership umbrella provided by the Water Sustainability Action Plan has allowed the Province to leverage partnerships to greatly enhance the profile and resulting impact of Living Water Smart. In effect, the Action Plan partners are functioning as the on-the-ground Living Water Smart implementation arm with local government, allowing my team to focus on legislative reform. Living Water Smart comprises 45 commitments grouped into five themes. The Action Plan has played a key delivery role in two of the five,” stated Lynn Kriwoken.

Developing and crafting the Water Sustainability Act was a difficult and challenging job, as there are many views on water. Provincial staff consulted far and wide. The end result is legislation that had broad-based support. There are many water management issues that need to be resolved and the Act established a process that can address many of them. “A decade later, some people have qualms and issues with the Water Sustainability Act. Quite often they are minor things. It is easy to throw darts when you don’t know what you don’t know. That is what I see happening,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

“The Water Act had evolved over many years. We recognized the limitations of the Water Act. And I really appreciated that government was willing to go out on a limb to replace it. We looked at replacing priority rights with a different form of water allocation. But the decision was, continue the foundation of priority rights. The WSA respects priority rights BUT there is a provision that if you get into a situation where communities rely on a small amount of water for essential household needs, there is a provision to allow that to happen,” stated Valerie Cameron.

“If you were to do a search of hydraulic connection, you would find it worked in through the entire Water Sustainability Act. You cannot impact a stream nor an aquifer hydraulically connected to a stream. But even if the FITFIR system is there, there is still that essential household use and critical environmental flows that need to be protected before you start going down the seniority line to cut water use. So, if there is not enough flow in the stream and the Comptroller sets a critical environmental flow,, that takes priority over the oldest licence,” stated Mike Wei.

“We are adapting asset management to a changing world. One of the big priorities for me this year is to just start bringing Asset Management back to reality. To say, we are all facing the same struggles. Let’s talk about what those struggles are, instead of just believing that we have the solution to it. The theme that I am now promoting is this, just tell us your story because people can learn from stories. It does not have to be perfect. We know it is not perfect. But do not be afraid to tell the story. Passing on knowledge really is about the stories,” stated Arnold Schwabe.

Percy McGauhey was an early proponent of an interdisciplinary approach for making better decisions. Buried in his textbook published in 1968 is this gem: “Ideally, the alternatives on which a final political decision is made in the field of water resources management should come from a team of experts from the several disciplines concerned. Historically, however, no such team has been utilized.” His hierarchy of decision making was the source of inspiration for the Partnership for Water Sustainability’s cascading approach to outreach and continuing education in the 2000s.

“The edition of Waterbucket eNews published on October 21, 2025 is about profiles in courage. It featured two individuals: former BC cabinet minister Mike Morris; and University of British Columbia professor Dr. Younes Alila. The story behind the story is about how they have aligned efforts to build awareness of Dr. Alila’s Flood Risk Methodology for flood protection. Their compelling message is that removal of forest cover, whether in rural or urban watersheds, increases the frequency, magnitude, duration and liability of floods,” stated Kim Stephens.

“Politics prevents you from doing the right thing because of the political lens that is put on everything. It was frustrating when I tried to bring the reality of the clearcut logging situation before my colleagues. And getting ignored because it did not fit the political agenda. Nobody seemed to care about the science. In the political world, it is based on whatever the flavour of the month is rather than what is right. Politicians ignore what they do not understand. By ignoring the consequences of clearcut logging, they put themselves in a pretty serious predicament,” stated Mike Morris.

“Evapotranspiration is necessary but not sufficient to empower the forest and affect hydrology in general and floods and droughts in particular. This can only be revealed through a probabilistic framework. Thinking like a system means you do not make decisions at the site scale. It is not about a particular stream reach or cross-section, or a bridge or a culvert. You need to step back and look at the big picture. You need to look at the entire stream network and what these flows are doing OVER TIME…AND IN THE LANDSCAPE OF THE WATERSHED,” stated Younes Alila.

“It took us eight years to get Kelowna’s first Water Security Plan across the finish line. We define our responsibilities within this plan. We looked through a One Water lens to address community needs and responsibilities. Our community must be consistent in its response and actions. First Nations, other communities, we all share the lake. But not all have the resources we have at the City of Kelowna. We felt it important to lead by example. We have accomplished something special. I see it. Others see it. This plan is critical for the growth of the city,” stated Rod MacLean.

Christina Gemino breaks new ground with her master’s thesis titled “The Silent Death of Agriculture in Metro Vancouver”. Using data from the provincial Agricultural Land Inventory (ALI) program, she draws attention to the consequential impacts of non-sanctioned (aka illegal) changes in how agricultural land is used and abused. “The non-sanctioned expansion of industrial use on agricultural land was a factor that drove my research. This can mean a lot of things. These uses can forever change the agricultural land base,” stated Christina Gemino.