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asset management for sustainable service delivery

    PARTNERSHIP FOR WATER SUSTAINABILITY PASSES ECOLOGICAL ACOUNTING BATON TO VANCOUVER ISLAND UNIVERSITY: “We have been degrading streams and complaining for too long. We need to start maintaining and ensuring that the functions of these streams are improved,” stated Graham Sakaki of Vancouver Island University in an article published in the Asset Management BC Newsletter (July 2023)


    “We can do a better job of this, and we know that is what we must do. It just takes somebody to come up with the idea for how to do it. And that is what the Partnership for Water Sustainability has done with the EAP methodology and metrics. EAP, the acronym for Ecological Accounting Process, is about maintenance and management (M&M) of stream corridor systems. The spotlight is on outcomes. EAP is cutting edge. It is innovative, very new and very unique. And it has the ability to really change the game. The framework that we have set up ensures this will happen,” stated Graham Sakaki.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Now, with the passage of time, we can state the obvious. The Comox Valley experiment is a success. The collaborative spirit has taken root,” stated Derek Richmond, Partnership for Water Sustainability Director and Comox Valley resident


    “Everyone cannot do everything. What really stands out about the Comox Valley is that each local government has developed an area of expertise or strength that is provincially significant. The combination is potentially quite powerful in terms of shaping the future of the valley. But only if there is an enduring commitment to walk the talk. Collaboration helps everyone better deliver on policy goals and outcomes. But one has to believe, truly believe, in collaboration to make it so. It must be embedded in an organization’s culture. There is no other way. It must be a commitment, a guiding principle,” stated Derek Richmond.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The Official Community Plan is part of our journey. It is a picture of the future. We used the branding of a compass because we are using this idea to chart our change and course correct,” stated Nancy Gothard, Manager of Community and Sustainability Planning with the City of Courtenay


    “The City’s Official Community Plan is something that I have poured my life into over the past two years. It is very progressive. We intend to apply for an award for it. Climate, reconciliation, equity, and community wellbeing are the cardinal directions of it. Running through that, naturally, is a respect for the natural environment. The OCP is my passion. It is written a little differently than the average one. It is explicitly written to be colourful, with images and language to help the lay reader. Because we know the long game with these messages is everyday people,” stated Nancy Gothard.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Vancouver Island University is all-in because EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, is an idea that can change the game with respect to protection or restoration of riparian integrity along streams. And students are excited to contribute to the change,” stated Graham Sakaki, Manager, Mount Arrowsmith Regional Research Institute


    “The EAP Partnership was set up in a really unique, really valuable and viable way right from the beginning. The Partnership for Water Sustainability made the connections to the three local governments. Together, we met with each individually. Then we all got together as a group to talk about what our values are and what we are really hoping to achieve. The fact that the three are showing their support for the students, and for the training to occur, is a great story. I just wish that partnerships like this existed among all research projects,” stated Graham Sakaki.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “You can do all the research that you want but you need good people in government to implement changes in engineering and development practices. They must be technically savvy and have the drive or desire to give back and do good work,” stated Dr. Chris May, retired Surface & Stormwater Division Director, Kitsap County Public Works in Washington State


    For two decades, Chris May had a leadership position in Washington State local government – first with the City of Seattle and then with Kitsap County. The latter was his living laboratory. Because he was Division Director, he could put science into practice. “Kitsap is at a manageable scale. The County is big enough to effect change and make things better. That was our goal – have a positive impact on the community! We knew we needed to work on multiple scales and on multiple fronts to improve conditions in our small stream watersheds – that was our strategy,” stated Chris May.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Local governments have real data to quantify the financial value of streams as physical assets. This metric allows them to put streams into the basket of local government asset management responsibilities,” stated Tim Pringle, Chair of the Ecological Accounting Process (EAP) program


    “If we know how to do a much better job of protecting ecological features and stream systems in our communities and on our landscape, then why aren’t we doing a better job? Why are streams still being degraded? These are among the questions driving the EAP program. The methodology and metrics focus on the land underlying the natural asset. In the case of stream systems, this is the setback zone defined in B.C. provincial legislation – namely, the Riparian Areas Protection Regulation,” stated Tim Pringle.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The growing cost of neglect, combined with the urgency of the flood liability issue in particular, is the driver for linking municipal infrastructure asset management and stream health as cause-and-effect,” stated Kim Stephens, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC (January 2023)


    “My over-arching message to those who were elected to municipal councils and regional boards in October 2022 is succinct: Get the water part right in a changing climate, and you will be amazed how other parts of the community resiliency puzzle then fall into place,” stated Kim Stephens. “Land use alters the landscape. That is obvious, right. But there is an elephant in the room. It is the unfunded liability due to neglect of the drainage service. The cost of neglect grows over time. The consequence of neglect is an accumulating financial liability to fund creek channel stabilization and stream corridor revegetation in urban and rural settings.”

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “An airplane analogy is one way to describe the relationship between council and staff. Think of one wing as political and the other as administration. If either wing is not functioning properly, the plane will crash,” stated Peter Steblin, Coquitlam City Manager


    As each new generation inherits the world, vital knowledge is forgotten. Generational amnesia has profound effects on the way that we see the world. The challenge is to overcome generational amnesia so that communities learn from past experience, apply this knowledge, and achieve better policy and financial outcomes. Peter Steblin provides a perspective on how elected councils and local government staff can function effectively to arrive at affordable and effective solutions to challenges. He says, “Staff gives good advice and council makes the decision. The operative phrase is a respect-based relationship.”

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Dr. Jane Wei-Skillern always acts as a great sounding board about the concepts underpinning our network approach in general and our Ambassadors Program in particular,” stated Derek Richmond, Partnership for Water Sustainability (November 2022)


    “The biggest takeaway from our conversation with Dr. Jane Wei-Skillern concerns the ‘what, how and who’ as the current leadership of the Partnership looks ahead to pass the baton.. Using the Partnership’s Ambassadors Program as the example of WHAT; – this was the breakthrough to articulate our need for succession planning and sustainability of the network. The WHO now becomes obvious because it is the ambassadors themselves. The HOW is now clear too, by looking back at what we were successful with in the past,” stated Derek Richmond.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “For decades we have trained our elected officials how to think and what to do with a plan. But now, with an Asset Management Plan for Sustainable Service Delivery, we want them to do something completely different. No wonder they are confused,” stated Wally Wells of Asset Management BC (November 2022)


    “We have managed assets for decades and understand what that is and what we are doing. Suddenly we took two very simple words, reversed them, and went from managing assets to asset management. The result? We confused everyone. Section 7 of the Community Charter defines the roles and responsibilities of local government in terms of ‘care of infrastructure and services’. In other words, Sustainable Service Delivery. This goes to the heart of affordable and sustainable re-investment in municipal infrastructure assets to meet a level-of-service desired by the community,” stated Wally Wells.

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