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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “It became clear that if one did not have a way of building confidence amongst practitioners, the rate of innovation would be slow,” stated Dale Wall, former Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs


    “We were looking in a new way at infrastructure innovation. We needed quite a lot of innovation to achieve some of the things that we hoped to achieve through regional growth strategies. The convening for action process that built confidence among practitioners to introduce new approaches. We realized that we simply had to have practitioners having discussions so that they would become more comfortable with innovative approaches. A peer learning network was one of the strands to introduce infrastructure innovation and build more sustainable regions,” stated Dale Wall.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Being an effective champion requires deep knowledge, experience and quiet resolve to make things happen,” stated Joan Sawicki, land and resource management champion, and former provincial cabinet minister


    “With the change of government in late 1991, all of a sudden land use planning and natural resource management was front and centre. We had Mike Harcourt as Premier and Darlene Marzari as Minister of Municipal Affairs. Both had come out of local government. They were very familiar with the urgent growth pressures and the ecological impacts that they were having. Then I was appointed Marzari’s Parliamentary Secretary. I had spent a term as an elected Councillor in Burnaby. So the Georgia Basin Initiative was a good fit for me,” stated Joan Sawicki.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Look at all the really important science that we were able to produce. There is a lot to be proud of in terms of all that material that we produced for the region, the network and the country,” stated Richard Boase, career environmental champion within local government in British Columbia


    “When I look back at our history, I think wow, how did we do so much applied research. We had a need and Hans Schreier had grad students who were interested in doing the research. Win-win,” stated Richard Boase. “At a critical moment, members of the Partnership team would have an idea around a research theme that supported our hypotheses. And as often happened, I was the arm that had the energy and willingness to take on the research, apply new science in North Vancouver, and get the work done.”

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    TURNING THE TIDE FOR STREAM SURVIVAL: “The Partnership for Water Sustainability created the methodology for EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process. Now we are in a 3-year transition strategy to embed EAP at Vancouver Island University,” stated Anna Lawrence, Project Coordinator, Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute at VIU


    “There are lots of layers to this partnership and projects. Not only is there a transition strategy, but there are also the partnerships with the local governments plus integrating other grad students, There are so many different parts to EAP. And with each part you can go down a distinct pathway that helps local governments. And that is what Sam Gerrand has done in such a holistic way with his master’s thesis which moves EAP from a stream-by-stream approach to a regional scale,” stated Anna Lawrence.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “A measure of the consequence of human settlement is the Riparian Deficit. It is the natural systems equivalent of the well-known Infrastructure Deficit for engineered systems,” stated Tim Pringle, Chair of the Ecological Accounting Process initiative


    “The Riparian Deficit applies to the regulated setback which is the interface between land and a stream,” stated Tim Pringle. “EAP is a land use perspective. EAP provides local governments with the real numbers they need to deliver outcomes: What is the number for the line item in a local government annual budget for community investment in maintenance and management, that is M&M, of streams? Streams need a place to be. If we cannot get our heads around that, we are not going to keep our streams. When something does not get measured, it does not get managed,” stated Tim Pringle

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “In the urban environment, we cannot bring back the watersheds that were here historically. But we can do things to retain and improve natural areas and the quality of receiving waters,” states Hugh Fraser, former Deputy Director of Engineering, City of Delta


    Hugh Fraser is a green infrastructure pioneer in the Metro Vancouver region. In the early 2000s, he was a leading voice when green infrastructure was in its infancy and was a component of the region’s Liquid Waste Management Plan. Delta’s rain garden program in road rights-of-way began in 2005 as a demonstration application to show how to achieve desired watershed health outcomes. “The program is now in Decade Three. Shared responsibility and intergenerational commitment are foundation pieces for enduring success,” stated Hugh Fraser.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Blue Ecology reinforces the attitude change that is necessary to support widespread use of tools and resources that help local governments design with nature,” stated Richard Boase, career environmental champion within local government


    “Think of Blue Ecology as a compass in terms of how it relates to a water-first approach to Water Reconciliation between cultures. The compass points the way forward and to success. Because of the diversity in backgrounds, skills and experiences that we have in the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, we are positioned to take what Michael Blackstock has created with the Blue Ecology framework and make it actionable in the local government sector,” stated Richard Boase.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The more you can build buzz around your work and get people energized, the more feasible it becomes. Success breeds success,” stated Dr. Jane Wei-Skillern of the University of California at Berkeley


    “I was teaching an MBA elective on social entrepreneurship, was doing some case writing, and came across Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. Geraldine Peacock, the CEO, did all of these counter-intuitive things in order to get her organization’s impact bigger. But it was by decreasing their own organizational footprint, investing in their peers and former competitors, and focusing more narrowly on their core business, that enabled them to leverage their resources more broadly and create greater and more sustainable impact in the entire field,” stated Jane Wei-Skillern.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “How you adapt to change is that you develop a culture where you welcome, and you try and anticipate, what a future state might be like. And then be nimble enough to adapt and adjust yourself to it,” stated Ramin Seifi, former General Manager of engineering and planning with Langley Township in the Metro Vancouver region


    “In my conversations with current and former senior level municipal staff around the Metro Vancouver region, there is a sense among them that the current generation of politicians appears more interested in appeasing a few people who are outspoken, as opposed to listening to the advice of their professional staff. More than ever, we need STRONGER CHAMPIONS and people who believe in what they are doing at heart. When I reflect on my time with Langley Township, I hope my lasting contribution is the confidence that I instilled in people to not be afraid of trying something and being a champion for it,” stated Ramin Seifi.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Without the Agricultural Land Reserve and watercourses, the city of Surrey would feel different. It would not be the place that it is,” stated Rémi Dubé when he reflected on the evolution of rainwater management and green infrastructure over decades


    “Watercourses really do drive a lot of what we do in Surrey. It always goes back to the natural resource that we inherited. From an urban fabric perspective, between the Agricultural Land Reserve and our watercourses, the city would be quite a bit different if not for them. Between those two assets, you drive through Surrey and there is an environmental sense to it despite the density in the City Centre. When the Natural Drainage Policy was adopted in 1975, formalizing that need to preserve creeks in the 1970s made a huge difference to what we have now,” stated Rémi Dubé.

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