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WHY REGIONAL GROWTH STRATEGIES MATTER: “Cities are all about choices – choices that become reality very quickly, with lasting consequences. Over the 21st century – the urban century – much will depend upon getting the choices right,” stated Mike Harcourt, the former Premier of British Columbia whose leadership made possible the Growth Strategies Act

 

Note to Reader:

Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. Storylines accommodate a range of reader attention spans. Read the headline and move on, or take the time to delve deeper – it is your choice!  Downloadable versions are available at Living Water Smart in British Columbia: The Series.

The edition published on November 12, 2024 featured Mike Harcourt. He was premier of British Columbia from 1991 until 1996. In the interview, he talked about the cross-border collaboration that was his bigger picture context for the Georgia Basin Initiative. In turn, the GBI provides relevant context for Metro Vancouver’s Livable Region Strategic Plan, deemed to be the region’s first regional growth strategy.

 

Understand my regional growth strategies matter

Experience in the Metro Vancouver region over the past three decades illustrates WHY AND HOW a set of cascading factors must ALL be in alignment to sustain the livability of the Georgia Basin region. This edition features former premier Mike Harcourt. His leadership made so much possible in the 1990s.

 

It is not too late to use the regional growth strategies tool the way it was intended

“A key purpose of the regional growth strategies legislation our government introduced in 1995 was to enable local government to respond to housing needs,” states Mike Harcourt. He was premier of BC from 1991 through 1996.

“It provided a basis for regional districts and their member communities to support adequate, affordable, and appropriate housing in places where the necessary facilities exist or can be provided. It promoted settlement patterns that would minimize the use of automobiles and encourage transit, walking and cycling.”

“Metro Vancouver’s first regional growth strategy was the Livable Region Strategic Plan adopted in 1996.”

 

 

“Since then, this plan has provided the overall framework for the planning and development of urban centres, transit corridors, job lands and infrastructure. It has been updated twice, most recently in the form of Metro 2050, adopted in February 2023.”

“Metro 2050 seeks to expand the supply and diversity of housing. Meeting Metro Vancouver’s urgent housing demand is exactly the sort of situation for which we developed the regional growth strategies legislation. It is not too late to put this tool to use for the benefit of our current and future residents,” Mike Harcourt emphasizes.

Create Livable Communities and Protect Stream Health:
7-part series previews the Green Infrastructure Chronicle

This edition is the fifth installment in a series of seven previews leading to release of the Synopsis for Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver from 1994 through 2024. The tag-line for the Chronicle is…create livable communities and protect stream health.

 

 

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE / CONTEXT FOR BUSY READER 

“It was 2009 when I had the opportunity to get to know former premier Mike Harcourt. The opportunity arose when UBC’s Patrick Condon recruited us to be part of his Sustainability by Design Research Roundtable and I chaired the Water Group,”  stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews Editor and Partnership Executive Director.

“SXD was a collaborative effort to produce a compelling representation of what the Metro Vancouver region might look like in 2050 at the neighbourhood, district, and region-wide scales. It is the only initiative of its kind.”

Nested layers – context for integrating perspectives to create livable communities

“For the past two years, I have been doing “story behind the story” interviews for the Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation. With each interview, I gain more and more insight into the context surrounding my involvement in the critical first decade of the Georgia Basin Initiative (GBI).”

 

 

“When Mike Harcourt sent word to me that he was interested to chat about the history of the Georgia Basin Initiative, it opened the door to asking what inspired him to make the GBI a priority for his government. Our subsequent conversation was a revelation.”

Understand The Why

“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’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! Cross-border collaboration in the 1990s with thought leaders in Washington State had a huge influence on my lived experience.”

 

 

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Cities are all about choices which is why regional growth strategies matter
 – extracts from a conversation with Mike Harcourt, former premier of British Columbia

Mike Harcourt served as a Vancouver alderman from 1973 to 1980. He was Mayor of Vancouver from 1980 to 1986. As mayor, his term in office was dominated by planning for Expo 86, an event that saw many new developments come to the city. Elected premier of BC in 1991, he served until 1996.  

Mike Harcourt and Ken Cameron co-authored with the late Sean Rossiter, City Making in Paradise: Nine Decisions That Saved Vancouver, published in 2007. The book details nine of the most important decisions the Vancouver region has faced since 1945.

 

 

Collaboration across boundaries begins with conversations about common interests 

 “The Georgia Basin Initiative had its origin in the cross-border Salish Sea Ecosystem Conferences. Beginning in the 1990s, conferences would alternate every two years or so between Vancouver and Seattle,” recalls Mike Harcourt.

“The conferences covered a whole range of growth management issues. How do we manage the number of people that are moving into the basin when we have a very tough geography where the urban space is pretty limited by the sea and the mountains, and by rivers and agricultural land and park wilderness.”

“When you take all that out, there is not a lot of land for urban development and an urban population. So, it is an area and ecosystem all on its own that deserves that kind of close attention.”

 

 

“At the end of 1986, I left the comfortable pew of the mayor’s chair in Vancouver to go into provincial politics because I wanted to change our relationship with First Nations. I figured that reconciliation was and still is the #1 issue in British Columbia. And so I wanted to deal with aboriginal rights and title and re-do the relationship.”

“It was a crazy era with the war in the woods and the fear that conservationists had of losing some key wilderness areas. When I was elected premier in 1991, I had a pretty clear set of priorities laid out in the election platform.”

“Among the priorities were: end the war in the woods; sustainable land use for cities and the natural resource areas; and land use planning processes like the Growth Strategies Act that Darlene Marzari, Joan Sawicki and I put together for the large urban areas that were fast growing,”

 

Georgia Basin Initiative: when the stars align anything is possible

“In 1992, I asked the BC Roundtable on the Economy and Environment to investigate the challenge of growth from a bioregional perspective. The idea for the Georgia Basin Initiative was seeded in their report titled Georgia Basin Initiative: Creating a Sustainable Future. The Roundtable findings were clear.”

 

Georgia Basin Initiative spawned a movement

“The 1990s was a very heady time in government in terms of land use planning and natural resource management. Because Mike Harcourt and Municipal Affairs Minister Darlene Marzari had come out of local government, they were very familiar with the urgent growth pressures and the ecological impacts that they were having,” adds Joan Sawicki.

 

Successor initiatives

Download Joint Statement of Cooperation on the Georgia Basin and Puget Sound Ecosystems

To learn more, visit Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative

 

Closing reflections on the passing of the intergenerational baton

“In 1991, I had some very specific things that I wanted to get done. This included dealing with the backlog of schools that needed to be built and health care facilities and transit and infrastructure that had fallen behind in the 1980s. We had a list of projects and we got them all done.”

“And when I think reflect on what we also achieved through cross-border collaboration, the good one was the park and wilderness joint commitment by BC and Washington State. Between the two governments, we put $130 million into protecting park and wilderness lands.”

 

Journey from then to now

“In my experience, ideas and initiatives ebb and flow. You just have to take the long view and remain committed to passing on the knowledge that comes from experience. That is why I still have the fire and am still involved. People say to me, when are you going to retire. And I reply, why would I do that?“

“Because the Partnership is the keeper of so much relevant history over the past three decades, publication of the Green Infrastructure Chronicle in 2025 will be timely. I believe people are ready to look over the tops of their foxholes and look further ahead over the horizon,” concludes Mike Harcourt.

 

Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver from 1994 through 2024

The Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation is a 500-page tome. Distil, distil, distil. The essence of the past three decades boils down to a table for the purposes of telling a story.

 

 

In the first installment, the theme was: Solutions to complex problems require deep knowledge. former cabinet minister Joan Sawicki and former city engineer Ray Fung reflected on their lived experience at the provincial and local scales, respectively.

In the second installment, the theme was: When an elected leader is THE CHAMPION, the community benefits. Darrell Mussatto, a respected former mayor, reflected on what it takes to be a better, more effective decision maker.

In the third installment, the theme was: Money is limited, attention spans are short, and choices must be made. Pete Steblin, a dean of city managers, reflected on why there must be trust and respect between elected leaders and their staff.

In the fourth installment, the theme was: Understand why the Livable Region Strategic Plan matters. Ken Cameron, co-architect of the plan, reflected on the importance of the fundamental principles that underlie the plan.

 

Table of Cascading Factors – a lesson learned is that all must be in alignment for success 

Four distinct eras define the past three decades, with the period of time for each varying between 6 and 9 years. In the image below the table, a defining statement characterizes each era.

 

 

Living Water Smart in British Columbia Series

To download a copy of the foregoing resource as a PDF document for your records and/or sharing, click on Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Cities are all about choices.

 

DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/11/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Mike-Harcourt-on-regional-growth-strategies_2024.pdf

 

About the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC

Technical knowledge alone is not enough to resolve water challenges facing BC. Making things happen in the real world requires an appreciation and understanding of human behaviour, combined with a knowledge of how decisions are made. It takes a career to figure this out.

The Partnership has a primary goal, to build bridges of understanding and pass the baton from the past to the present and future. To achieve the goal, the Partnership is growing a network in the local government setting. This network embraces collaborative leadership and inter-generational collaboration.

TO LEARN MORE, VISIT: https://waterbucket.ca/about-us/

DOWNLOAD: https://waterbucket.ca/atp/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/01/PWSBC_Annual-Report-2023_as-published.pdf