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“The drought of 2015 suggests we may be crossing an invisible threshold into a different hydro-meteorological regime in Western North America,” stated Bob Sandford in 2015. Events have proven him to be right. Over the past decade, it has been one drought after another, dramatized by the extremes that impacted BC communities in 2021 and again in 2023. The mountainous nature of BC’s geography means that BC communities are typically storage-constrained, and what storage they do have is measured in months. This accentuates risks, uncertainties and vulnerabilities.

“One afternoon in the summer of 2020 I was enjoying the sparkle of Alta Lake from my deck, when an excited neighbour appeared waving a membership form, telling me I should join this new lake group. Freshly retired from a 30+ year water career with the provincial government, my feet barely back on the ground, I said sure, why not? Not retired, just re-wired. My nvolvement allows me to make a contribution as a citizen scientist to protect the place I love. WLCF has since evolved to more of stewardship, citizen science focus,” stated Lynn Kriwoken.

“Knowing that Canada is heavily reliant on other places for fruits and vegetables was one way to delve into the actual climate change risk assessment. Looking at risks meant looking at the entire supply chain, not just domestic production. After that, it was a question of how do we make the research more useful for people. So, we developed the Canada Food Flows portal as an online knowledge mobilization platform.My bigger motivation for looking beyond Canada’s borders resulted from my participation in a consultation session held in Ottawa,” stated Kushank Bajaj.

“In October 1999, I took on the job as President and CEO of the SFU Community Trust. Even before I started, I got a call from Don Stenson who was then Director of Planning at the City of Burnaby. We had never met before. He asked me to come to his office. We were having a chat and he said to me something that I have never forgotten. He said there is one thing that I want you to never forget… STORMWATER. Whatever you build on top of that mountain, the stormwater flows into Stoney Creek must be no worse than they are today,” recalled Michael Geller.

“I see myself as merely a narrator speaking about a shared experience that we all had in planning the Cowichan Region Climate Gathering. I have that role because I was involved in the earlier stages. And so, I hold that and I carry that with me as an obligation or responsibility to be able to share that story. Our whole planning team very much lived that experience of coming together and it becoming a lived experience for all 150 participants who were present,” stated Keith Lawrence.

“Nature belongs in cities, but how do we put nature first without pushing people aside? Nature-First Cities reveals the false dichotomy of that question by recognizing that people and nature are indivisible. Cities can co-exist with nature. Nature-First Cities is a guide to building urban ecosystems. This book calls for action in cities based on the science and practice of Nature-Directed Stewardship. Cam Brewer, Herb Hammond and I make the case that the appropriate planning unit is a focal watershed – the largest watershed that fits within the boundaries of a city,” stated Shawn Markey.

“Things are changing in local government and we need to get a better handle on what direction that change goes. And I believe that distrust results from failure to communicate the purposes of local government as defined in the Community Charter for municipalities and in the Local Government Act for regional districts. When elected officials get so far into the weeds that they tell staff how to do their job, that creates problems. So, what do we do? We reset. It is clearly a time of change. This isn’t about blame. It is about putting pieces together,” stated Arnold Schwabe.

“The Partnership for Water Sustainability is all-in with our support for Michael Blackstock and Blue Ecology. In fact, our collaboration with Michael is living proof of what it means to walk the talk and lead by example when it comes to interweaving Indigenous and Western views of water. Leading by example is playing out in the Cowichan Valley Regional District. The umbrella for our current collaboration with the regional district is the Blue Ecology in the Cowichan initiative. Building bridges between two cultures is about a mind-set change,” stated Kim Stephens.

No shrinking violet, Barry Janyk brought a larger-than-life personality to preserving the Town of Gibsons’ small-town charm during his 12 years as mayor of the Sunshine Coast community. He had a witty and irreverent sense of humour and believed politics should be fun. Barry Janyk was also known provincially –– he served as chair of the Island Coastal Economic Trust, chair of the Association of Vancouver Island Communities, and a director of the Union of BC Municipalities. In the final chapter of his left, he served as Executive Director of the BC Rural Centre.

“In our current ‘interesting’ times, deep knowledge is needed more than ever to chart the way forward through mine fields,” stated Kim Stephens. “Loss of continuity is happening just when continuity of understanding is needed most. Knowing what we know, the Partnership believes the moment is right to brand 2025 as THE YEAR OF THE RE-SET. This means implement a course correction so that governments would maintain and manage engineered and natural assets as interconnected components within a system that includes the people who live there.”