Water-Centric Planning

“British Columbia's Climate Action Charter gives land use practitioners a metric that is widely accepted as one of the measures of 'sustainability': green house gas emissions (GHGs),” says Tim Pringle.

Paul OCallaghan
Decentralized wastewater management as an alternative approach to centralized wastewater management encourages the use of satellite and catchment-based treatment options.

Eagle Lake commissioning – Mayor Pam & Ray Fung
The District of West Vancouver's Eagle Lake Development Plan recognizes that water is a valuable commodity. Developing the Eagle Lake water source will help the municipality manage increasing costs of treated water, reduce reliance on Metro Vancouver water, and increase the amount of water supplied by Eagle Lake.

The week of June 5-14, 2009 has been designated Boundary Waters Week to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Boundary Waters Treaty. On this occasion, the Forum for Leadership on Water (FLOW) is calling for the federal government to invest in Canadian water security by providing greater support to the International Joint Commission.

Regional politicians have pushed forward with Greater Victoria’s sewage treatment project, voting in favour of building four plants at a cost of around $1.2 billion.

White River First Nation story
Watermark Magazine – Winter 2008
This is the story of a project that is interesting because of the setting, climate and remoteness, and the unique challenges that these present.

The Capital Regional District has been considering three options for treating sewage in Victoria: four plants at a cost of $1.2 billion, six plants for $1.6 billion and 11 plants at a cost of $2 billion.

“Over the past decade, BC has made considerable progress in changing infrastructure practices through an educational approach. Now, the focus is on how the Province’s grant programs provide incentives necessary to influence behaviour; and reward those who meet program objectives for doing business differently. Integration of legislative goals and strategies with grant programs is achieved through the combination of Eligibility Requirements, Evaluation Criteria, and Conditionality of Contracts,” stated Glen Brown.

“Climate change is emerging as a driver for rainwater harvesting in the urban regions of British Columbia, partly because of the need to mitigate risk.In Metro Vancouver, for example, a declining snowpack means less water is available to replenish lake storage reservoirs during the high-demand summer season. The need to offset this loss provides an incentive to capture rain where it falls on roof surfaces,” explained Kim Stephens.

Smart spending on sustainable water infrastructure can create thousands of green jobs, reduce our $31-billion water infrastructure deficit and conserveCanada’s water. These investments can be deployed quickly with lasting economic and environmental benefits