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“In these challenging times, it is imperative that we offer hope. Sharing stories of people’s experiences is valuable for inspiring others. Each week, we start with a compelling quotable quote and delve into the story behind the story. During the past 3-month period, the Partnership has published 11 feature stories. This edition constitutes our “season in review”. We have kept it simple. To refresh reader memories about the topics and how much ground we have covered, we have brought forward the headline plus defining quotable quote from each of the 11 storylines,” stated Kim Stephens.

The 100-Year Action Plan for bringing Bowker Creek back to life will be achieved through an intergenerational commitment to a shared vision. Key words that capture the essence of the Bowker story are perseverance, dedication, and TIME in capitals. Changes do not happen overnight. It is a journey and journeys take decades. “That is what makes the Bowker Creek Initiative the best. We are watching it implement organically and operationally, unlike how it was 10 years ago when we were always banging at doors and saying don’t forget about the creek,” stated Jody Watson.

“Watercourses really do drive a lot of what we do in Surrey. It always goes back to the natural resource that we inherited. From an urban fabric perspective, between the Agricultural Land Reserve and our watercourses, the city would be quite a bit different if not for them. Between those two assets, you drive through Surrey and there is an environmental sense to it despite the density in the City Centre. When the Natural Drainage Policy was adopted in 1975, formalizing that need to preserve creeks in the 1970s made a huge difference to what we have now,” stated Rémi Dubé.

When senior governments cut programs in the 2000s and downloaded responsibilities to local government, the City of Surrey and Carrie Baron stepped up. Her passion and commitment garnered internal support at Surrey to fund data collection and performance monitoring programs. These advanced science-based understanding. “It was disheartening when senior governments started cutting all the science and data collection programs. The more you learn, the more you try to bring in. That was always the key – we knew that as technology advanced and we learned more, we had to change,” stated Carrie Baron.

Success in advancing the green infrastructure mission during the 2000s under Paul Ham’s watch is attributable to 10 cascading factors being in alignment within Surrey as well as within the Metro Vancouver region. These are timeless, universal principles. Top-to-bottom alignment enabled local government collaboration at the regional scale. Paramount is political commitment. Staff can only carry things so far. Only when someone who is elected takes the lead, and is the champion, does something happen.

“The Partnership for Water Sustainability and Asset Management BC share common interests. The umbrella for collaboration Sustainable Service Delivery. An over-arching goal of collaboration is to advance a mutually supporting approach that profiles and raises awareness of the guiding philosophy, principles and objectives embodied in the BC Framework. Local government politicians and staff are being overwhelmed by the issues of the day. Folks are losing sight of the big picture. An elephant in the room is that the asset management community has lost its way,” stated Kim Stephens.

“Major breakthroughs happen when decision-makers in government work with grass-roots visionaries in the community to create the future desired by all. Collaboration grows from a shared vision about the future and commitment to action. This is the ‘top down and bottom up’ approach. Engagement of community through stewardship is a credible formula to be encouraged and mainstreamed at every opportunity. Collaboration, teamwork and a recognition that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts is the energy that stokes creativity and determination,” stated Eric Bonham.

“As an elected representative, you go through the years, and you become more involved. And then in my case, 2018 comes along and you are not running for re-election again. After serving 25 years, you are done! That is a big, big shock. Once you are done, you are done. At the regional level, there has been a recent loss of long-term knowledge and experience. The loss of understanding is real. When politicians retire, staff are still there. As an outgoing elected person, you rely on the continuity of key staff to keep it all together,” stated Darrell Mussatto.

“As scientists, we try to walk that tightrope between being overly reactive or not bringing the appropriate dynamics to bear on a situation. That is the debate in so many policy decisions. Ultimately the decisions are up to senior managers, politicians and the public to make. As a scientist, all you can do is provide the best quality of information possible. Hopefully, though, scientists can provide information that helps. I do believe that scientists need to talk to politicians, managers, and members of the community. And that is what I do in my current role,” stated Dave Preikshot.

“So, why have the practitioners of Rainwater Management in British Columbia fallen behind practitioners in Washington State, Oregon and California in protecting streams? One must understand how we arrived at this situation and then it will be easy to see a path forward,” stated Jim Dumont. “While many advances have been made in managing rainwater on-site, BC communities are failing to utilize practices that directly benefit streams during droughts and floods. Everything is in place. We have led people to it, but we cannot force the uptake. We cannot force the change.”