Water-Centric Planning

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Georgia Basin inter-regional education initiative

    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Storytelling is among the oldest forms of communication,” stated Professor Rives Collins, author of ‘The Power of Story: Teaching Through Storytelling’ (2024 Series Season Finale in December)


    We share our world view through our stories and storytelling This is how we pass on our oral history. Storytelling is the way we share intergenerational knowledge, experience and wisdom. “Storytelling is the commonality of all human beings, in all places, in all times,” stated Professor Rives Collins, Northwestern University, author of “The Power of Story: Teaching Through Storytelling”.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “On election day in British Columbia, an atmospheric river deluged Metro Vancouver and parts of the province’s south coast. Flooding was widespread across the Lower Mainland,” stated Kim Stephens of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia


    “The storm caused more than $110 million in insured damaged according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, reported the Canadian Press on November 15, 2024. This created a teachable moment. And the ‘streams and trees’ component of the Metro Vancouver region’s Draft Interim Liquid Waste Management Plan provides the springboard to a re-set and course correction in 2025. Lessons from the past inform the future. Political endorsement of the Draft Plan is a critical first step to reverse past failures and get it right,” stated Kim Stephens,

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “To get to food security in BC, we need to increase the irrigated area from 200,000 to 300,000 hectares,” stated Ted van der Gulik, President of the Partnership for Water Sustainability, and former Senior Engineer in the Ministry of Agriculture


    “Food security, land security and water security are not separate issues. They are one and the same. Agricultural land use inventories give us accurate data on irrigated food lands in the Fraser Valley, both existing and potential. If we invest in the infrastructure needed to supply water from the Fraser River, we can increase the irrigated area by 30,000 hectares in the Fraser Valley alone. Thanks to satellite imagery, British Columbia has a powerful capability for understanding exactly what is happening on the land,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “I think it is great that the Partnership for Water Sustainability is the keeper of the Georgia Basin Initiative legacy and that what we started in the 1990s continues,” stated Mike Harcourt, the former Premier of British Columbia whose leadership made possible the Georgia Basin Initiative during a critical period


    Mike Harcourt talked about the cross-border collaboration that was his bigger picture context for the Georgia Basin Initiative. In turn, it provides context for Metro Vancouver’s Livable Region Strategic Plan. This was deemed to be the region’s first regional growth strategy when Minister of Municipal Affairs Minister Darlene Marzari approved it in February 1996. Cross-border collaboration, the George Basin Initiative and Livable Region Strategic Plan are nested layers for integrating planning, engineering and environmental perspectives to create livable communities!

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “In 1999, the majority of streams in Metro Vancouver were in the FAIR and POOR categories. When we illustrated this finding on a map, Board members agreed that things had to change. The takeaway message was things will get worse if we do not change our ways,” stated Robert Hicks, career engineer-planner in local government


    When the Metro Vancouver region’s first Liquid Waste Management Plan was adopted in 2001, it established a precedent with a “streams and trees” component. “This was the work of the interagency Stormwater Management Technical Advisory Task Group. It was clear to the Task Group that engineering solutions alone would not result in good stormwater management and environmental protection, nor address regulatory infraction risk. Because the status quo was not working, the municipalities were feeling the pressure to change course,” stated Robert Hicks.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “People might look back and say…well I don’t know what they had going for them; this is now, and things are different. But the state of mind that lay behind that kind of success is worth recalling for people,” stated Ken Cameron, co-architect of Metro Vancouver’s Livable Region Strategic Plan in the 1990s


    In 1990, an action plan provided a regional framework for maintaining and enhancing the livability of Metro Vancouver. Between January and June 1990, Creating Our Future produced some really important basic ideas, like environmental management and stewardship of water. And also a transportation system that put walking, cycling, goods movement and transit ahead of the private use of the private automobile. These had never been researched; they were taken as value statements and bolted into the vision. That led to the Livable Region Strategic Plan,” stated Ken Cameron.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “If we apply EAP to land owned by the RDN to help prove that Natural Asset Management is meaningful, and the Regional Board accepts it, then I see that as the trigger to influence other people who also have land to behave in a similar fashion,” stated Murray Walters, Manager of Water Services with the Regional District of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island


    “The Regional District of Nanaimo had an early interest in EAP. We selected French Creek as its first project under the EAP Partnership umbrella because it will feed into the needs analysis for the ongoing provincially community issues study in the French Creek electoral area. EAP is especially relevant to a drainage and riparian corridor protection strategy. French Creek has multiple, notable characteristics, one of which is that it is a large creekshed. And so it was decided quite early on that it should be a two-year study rather than one year,” stated Murray Walters.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The 3-year transition strategy for embedding the Ecological Accounting Process at Vancouver Island University has multiple layers and partnerships and there are many moving parts to keep in balance,” stated Anna Lawrence, Program Coordinator for the EAP Transition Strategy Partnership


    ‘”The Departure Creek project in the City of Nanaimo was an exciting analysis because we gained insight into social perceptions of the worth of the creek. This was an add-on layer to the EAP technical analysis. We were fortunate that Departure Creek has a strong stewardship group,” stated Anna Lawrence “During this 3-year transition strategy, we are really delving into how can EAP be used, and why and how it is useful. Now that I am immersed in it, I like the fact that each creek has a different angle that you can work with…each with a different context, different people, different story.”

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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 Pete Steblin, former City Manager in the Metro Vancouver region


    “When I reflect on the organizational amnesia that I am currently observing in local government, the word FEAR comes into my mind, although it is not said out loud. You hear the term CAO roadkill at lot. With the high turnover at the top, and the exodus of experienced people, the situation is fragile. Yet there is a reluctance to ask for help from those with experience, knowledge and… yes, wisdom. In fact, there seems to be a fear of independent advice unless it is totally supportive of the direction that the people at the top want to go in,” stated Pete Steblin.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The history of green infrastructure innovation in Metro Vancouver over the past three decades is defined by four distinct eras, with the period of time for each varying between 6 and 9 years,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC


    “Three decades and counting! Being in the room when ideas were conceived and decisions made is a core part of my lived experience,” stated Kim Stephens. “For the past 21 months, my time and energy have gone into interviews and writing the Chronicle, with the goal of distilling the history to answer a 2-part question. In a journey defined by collaboration and a regional team approach…What did we learn at each stage from 1994 through 2024? And how can the next generation of elected and aspiring leaders use this knowledge as a launchpad to do better?”

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