Water-Centric Planning

“More and more thoughtful people are concerned that climate change, in combination with a number of contributing environmental circumstances, is poised to create a perfect storm of economic, social and political consequeces,” stated Bob Sandford.

“There are two responses to climate change: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation is alleviating the effects of climate change through reducing greenhouse gases. Adaptation is responding to the changes that will inevitably occur. If migation is about CARBON, then adaptation is about WATER,” stated Jim Mattison.

The Cowichan Valley Regional District hosted the first of the Vancouver Island Learning Lunch Series in Summer 2008. At Seminar #2, Kate Miller used the “elephant in the room analogy” to capture audience attention vis-a-vis the implications of Living Water Smart for rainwater management. “There is an elephant in our room right now…which is around how do we deal with rainwater management…how do we deal with the larger policy issues…what’s the objective,” stated Kate Miller.

At the second seminar in the the 2008 Comox Valley Learning Lunch Seminar Series, Susan Rutherford of West Coast Environmental Law employed a question-and-answer format to illustrate opportunities and scales for law and policy to effect change, thereby suppoprting and achieving the Living Water Smart vision. “Kevin Lagan and Derek Richmond of the City of Courtenay provided me with some questions that are at the forefront of their minds. I morphed what they gave me into generic questions,” stated Susan Rutherford.

“The Forum was an outcome of the Cowichan Valley Learning Lunch Seminar Series, also a provincial pilot,” explained Kate Miller. “We described the Forum as a hybrid-training workshop because the day was built around case study applications of the Water Balance Model. These provided the technical foundation for roundtable sharing, exploration and cross-fertilization of ideas on how to implement green infrastructure effectively.”

“The Convening for Action vision is that water sustainability in British Columbia will be achieved through implementation of green infrastructure policies, practices and standards. Through regional initiatives such as CAVI, which is the acronym for Convening for Action on Vancouver Island, the Water Sustainability Action Plan is adding considerable depth to Living Water Smart. In 2008, CAVI undertook the Vancouver Island Learning Lunch Seminar Series as a provincial pilot,” stated Glen Brown.

“Living Water Smart provides leadership that will help improve the way we build and protect communities, use our water resources and sustain our quality of life,” stated Scott Veitch, Living Water Smart is a blueprint for cultural, environmental, industrial, community and agricultural change that will help safeguard the province’s water resources into the future. The plan commits to new actions and builds on existing efforts to protect and keep B.C.’s water healthy and secure.

The Gaining Ground Sustainable Urban Development Leadership Summit in Victoria was the venue for an announcement by the Deputy Minister (Community Services), on behalf of the Inter-Governmental Partnership about the change-over from the original Water Balance Model to the new Water Balance Model powered by QUALHYMO.

British Columbia will establish a secretariat to support a new Western Water Stewardship Council, which will ensure western provinces have a safe supply of water, Premier Gordon Campbell announced in May 2008 after the Western Premiers' Conference.

In the first excerpt, Chris Wood observes that activists routinely assert that U.S. states are “looking toward Canada’s water” as a “quick-fix solution” to regional water crises but rarely if ever identify the states in question. Perhaps because none exist.