Water-Centric Planning

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living water smart bc

    FOOD SECURITY IS AT THE INTERSECTION OF LAND, WATER, AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE: “Without a shift in thinking, sustainable water management may never be achieved in British Columbia. But Donald Trump’s threats make a mind-set change possible,” stated Ted van der Gulik, President of the Partnership for Water Sustainability, and former Senior Engineer in the Ministry of Agriculture


    “If you are importing food, you are importing water. It is that simple. Also, our agricultural land in BC really is not as secure as everyone thinks. You can see all kinds of activities that do not support food production that are going on within the Agricultural Land Reserve. BC has two powerful tools for achieving food security. The Agricultural Land Use Inventory program is input to the Agriculture Water Demand Model. This is a powerful combination. These tools yield accurate data about agricultural land use and water need in all regions of BC,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Almost always Canada’s exposure within our borders to weather extremes are lower, relatively speaking, than the risks in the international regions we depend upon. And that makes us extremely vulnerable as a net food importer,” stated Dr. Kushank Bajaj, researcher at the UBC Land Use and Global Environment Lab


    “Knowing that Canada is heavily reliant on other places for fruits and vegetables was one way to delve into the actual climate change risk assessment. Looking at risks meant looking at the entire supply chain, not just domestic production. After that, it was a question of how do we make the research more useful for people. So, we developed the Canada Food Flows portal as an online knowledge mobilization platform.My bigger motivation for looking beyond Canada’s borders resulted from my participation in a consultation session held in Ottawa,” stated Kushank Bajaj.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Not everyone gets to plan a brand-new community on top of a mountain as I did at Simon Fraser University,” stated Michael Geller, the man whose leadership took the vision for a sustainable community and created UniverCity


    “In October 1999, I took on the job as President and CEO of the SFU Community Trust. Even before I started, I got a call from Don Stenson who was then Director of Planning at the City of Burnaby. We had never met before. He asked me to come to his office. We were having a chat and he said to me something that I have never forgotten. He said there is one thing that I want you to never forget… STORMWATER. Whatever you build on top of that mountain, the stormwater flows into Stoney Creek must be no worse than they are today,” recalled Michael Geller.

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    COWICHAN REGION CLIMATE GATHERING IN DECEMBER 2024: “The planning team aimed to strengthen the important relationships that allow us to build a stronger and more aligned collective approach to caring for our environment and increasing our resiliency,” stated Cindy Lise, co-moderator


    “The Climate Gathering was an opportunity to celebrate the incredible climate action work in the Cowichan region. We had a fabulous team, and we were able to make a dream vision a reality and added layers of detail to make the Climate Gathering a success. There are many benefits to sharing, coordinating and collaborating,” stated Cindy Lise. The gathering brought networks from across the region together for further relationship building and identification of opportunities to work together.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The Cowichan Region Climate Gathering was successful because each member of the planning team brought their unique perspective from their organization and place. We worked at building relationships among ourselves,” stated Keith Lawrence, lead person from the Cowichan Valley Regional District and co-moderator of the Cowichan Region Climate Gathering in December 2024


    “I see myself as merely a narrator speaking about a shared experience that we all had in planning the Cowichan Region Climate Gathering. I have that role because I was involved in the earlier stages. And so, I hold that and I carry that with me as an obligation or responsibility to be able to share that story. Our whole planning team very much lived that experience of coming together and it becoming a lived experience for all 150 participants who were present,” stated Keith Lawrence.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Many of the concepts in the book, including the water movement network, align with the water and ecosystem management approaches and philosophies in the work of the Partnership for Water Sustainability,” stated SFU Professor Sean Markey, co-author of Nature-First Cities, published in 2024


    “Nature belongs in cities, but how do we put nature first without pushing people aside? Nature-First Cities reveals the false dichotomy of that question by recognizing that people and nature are indivisible. Cities can co-exist with nature. Nature-First Cities is a guide to building urban ecosystems. This book calls for action in cities based on the science and practice of Nature-Directed Stewardship. Cam Brewer, Herb Hammond and I make the case that the appropriate planning unit is a focal watershed – the largest watershed that fits within the boundaries of a city,” stated Shawn Markey.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “I would like to say taxpayers are unhappy but that would be an understatement. They are angry! Everywhere there is distrust,” stated Arnold Schwabe, Executive Director with Asset Management BC


    “Things are changing in local government and we need to get a better handle on what direction that change goes. And I believe that distrust results from failure to communicate the purposes of local government as defined in the Community Charter for municipalities and in the Local Government Act for regional districts. When elected officials get so far into the weeds that they tell staff how to do their job, that creates problems. So, what do we do? We reset. It is clearly a time of change. This isn’t about blame. It is about putting pieces together,” stated Arnold Schwabe.

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    COUNTERBALANCE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WITH NATURAL INTELLIGENCE! – “The promotion of AI as the greatest thing since sliced bread is constant and we really must counterbalance that. A consequence of the AI drumbeat is the loss of our connection to the natural world,” stated Michael Blackstock, co-founder of the Blue Ecology Institute, and ambassador of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC


    “During the day I listen to the stock market channel on the radio. The talk is constant now about AI. Companies are embracing it because it is viewed as the greatest thing since sliced bread. My observation is that we are being firehosed. It just seems that humans are going down this artificial rabbit hole where business believes technology is going to solve everything; and it is happening with no apparent awareness of unintended consequences,” stated Michael Blackstock.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Increasing awareness of Indigenous wisdom related to water and climate change supports the 10-year goals of the Cowichan Drinking Water and Watershed Protection program. Blue Ecology is a work plan element,” stated Kim Stephens of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia


    “The Partnership for Water Sustainability is all-in with our support for Michael Blackstock and Blue Ecology. In fact, our collaboration with Michael is living proof of what it means to walk the talk and lead by example when it comes to interweaving Indigenous and Western views of water. Leading by example is playing out in the Cowichan Valley Regional District. The umbrella for our current collaboration with the regional district is the Blue Ecology in the Cowichan initiative. Building bridges between two cultures is about a mind-set change,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: Barry Janyk, former 4-term mayor of Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast, had a vision for what a community is and what makes the community a great place to live –– that set him apart from most mayors and most municipal elected officials


    No shrinking violet, Barry Janyk brought a larger-than-life personality to preserving the Town of Gibsons’ small-town charm during his 12 years as mayor of the Sunshine Coast community. He had a witty and irreverent sense of humour and believed politics should be fun. Barry Janyk was also known provincially –– he served as chair of the Island Coastal Economic Trust, chair of the Association of Vancouver Island Communities, and a director of the Union of BC Municipalities. In the final chapter of his left, he served as Executive Director of the BC Rural Centre.

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