LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “It became clear that if one did not have a way of building confidence amongst practitioners, the rate of innovation would be slow,” stated Dale Wall, former Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs
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 May 7, 2024 featured Dale Wall, retired Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs. It was his job to implement regional growth management in the 1990s and 2000s. He was a founding member of the Green Infrastructure Partnership because he believed it would be an effective vehicle for peer-based learning that would build practitioner confidence to be innovative.
Regional Growth Strategies for Healthy Communities
“As regular readers of this Editor’s Perspective know, I am compiling a legacy resource which is a chronicle of the green infrastructure journey in the Metro Vancouver region. Who did what, why, and how,” stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews Editor and Partnership Executive Director.
“The chronicle covers the period 1997 through 2023 and will be released later in 2024. The chronicle tells the story of “convening for action” through quotable quotes. What we learned is of universal application. And the value of that lived experience increases with the passage of time.”
Dale Wall had our back
“In the 2000s, Dale Wall was an influential force behind the scenes. As a Deputy Minister, his high-level support and his participation at strategic moments lent credibility to everything that we in the Partnership were doing under the Convening for Action in BC umbrella.”
“The Partnership launched parallel initiatives in three regions: Metro Vancouver (2003), Okanagan (2005), Vancouver Island (2006). And there was cross-fertilization between regions. Our program goal was to leverage peer-based learning to achieve desired green infrastructure and water sustainability outcomes.”
“When we convened for action in local government settings, our message was succinct: our land ethic has consequences and green infrastructure and water sustainability outcomes are interconnected. I believe British Columbia was the first jurisdiction to frame it this way.”
“So, I asked Dale Wall, “why did you have our back and what was in your mind in the 2000s; and how do we bring forward those gems of insight and the lessons we learned?” His answer and reflections follow.”
“Several aha messages emerge from the ensuing conversation. Peer-based learning builds practitioner confidence to innovate. And when a situation is dire, turning it around fairly quickly requires deep knowledge plus trust.”
Peer-based learning, practitioner confidence, and innovative outcomes
“The provincial government had taken on an interest in climate action after the 2003 Kelowna fires. And we were looking in a new way at infrastructure innovation and the consequences of how we went about developing regions and urban spaces,” explains Dale Wall.
“It became clear that if one did not have a way of building confidence amongst practitioners, the rate of innovation would be slow. And we needed quite a lot of innovation in order to achieve some of the things that we hoped to achieve through regional growth strategies.”
“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 conversation between practitioners who said, I tried that and this is how it worked or did not work, or this is what I learned. And other practitioners would take up the conversation because they were not dealing with some outsider or academic or advocate to do these things.”
“As practitioners became more comfortable, we expected they would in fact introduce those innovations. And you would see them being introduced in more and more places over time as those conversations continued, and as people determined that…yes, these were effective new ways of doing work.”
TO LEARN MORE:
To read the complete story, download a copy of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Regional Growth Strategies for Healthy Communities.
DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/05/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Dale-Wall-and-regional-growth-strategies_2024.pdf