REMEMBERING BARRY JANYK, POLITICAL CHAMPION FOR SMART DEVELOPMENT: “Barry Janyk could take up a lot of space in a room. He was a really fierce advocate for his town. I don’t know many mayors that care so visibly about their town,” stated Bruce Milne, former mayor of Sechelt
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 January 28, 2025 celebrated the contributions of the late Barry Janyk (1952-2024), former 4-term mayor of the Town of Gibsons. He was outspoken, funny and fearless in following his passions and advocating for the causes he believed in. One of those causes was “Smart Development”. Because he believed in doing the right thing, he played a leadership role in setting the green infrastructure movement in motion a generation ago. He was an influencer in a profound and public way.
Remembering Barry Janyk, political champion for Smart Development
No shrinking violet, Barry Janyk brought a larger-than-life personality to preserving 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.
Under Barry Janyk’s leadership through four terms, Gibsons was one of the first communities in B.C. to consider the implications of sea-level rise and recognize water as a crucial resource. He was thrilled when the town was awarded “Best Municipal Drinking Water in the World” and deemed “most liveable community in the world” in international competitions.
Rural constituencies want a voice
Barry Janyk died of a rare form of brain cancer, just days before his 72nd birthday. A celebration of his life was held in Gibsons on January 18th. The finale moment in his public service was organizing the Keeping It Rural Conference in June 2023.
Barry Janyk envisioned the conference as a springboard for creating a Rural Mayors, Chairs and Chiefs Caucus. Not long afterwards, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Did the vision for what the BC Rural Centre could be die with him? The story behind that story is the flashback included as an appendix in the downloadable version of this edition of Waterbucket eNews.
Barry Janyk was an early political champion for Smart Development in urban BC
In 1999, Barry Janyk had a vision which morphed into the SmartStorm Forum Series. The genesis for the series was a focus group workshop convened by UBCM in October 1997. Barry Janyk coined the term Smart Development to clearly differentiate the BC approach from the Low Impact Development terminology which was then being used in the United States.
Barry Janyk chaired the inter-governmental committee which initiated the series. He added political profile in his moderator role for the series. His tone-setting presentation to kickoff each event was titled The Political Consequences of Doing the Wrong Thing: Why Elected Officials Must Consider Smart Development.
In 2007, when he was Vice-President of the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities, Barry Janyk was the political champion who helped the Partnership for Water Sustainability bring to fruition the vision for the inter-regional Green Infrastructure Leadership Forum .
EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE / CONTEXT FOR BUSY READER
“Zooming out to view the past three decades as a whole, the period 1997 through 2005 was the crucible for the golden period that followed from 2006 through 2011. This is our context for remembering Barry Janyk, a true political champion for smart development,” stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews Editor and Partnership Executive Director.
“The crucible era is bracketed by the passage of the Fish Protection Act in 1997 and the Green Infrastructure Consultation Workshop held in May 2005. These were literally watershed moments.”
“A large cast of characters was involved. We were venturing into uncharted territory, and that meant taking leaps of faith and calculated risks that we were heading in the right direction. We pushed the boundaries of knowledge and experience. We learned together.”
Smart Development founded on an ecosystem-based approach was a movement
“The cast of players during the period 1997 through 2005 was large indeed. There was passion, there was commitment, and most of all there was a can-do attitude. It was a movement,” continues Kim Stephens.
“Drawing on my firsthand knowledge and experience in working closely with so many during this period, I view the roster of players in term of three tiers of champions. Keep in mind that my perspective is the convening for action lens.”
Who are the Tier One champions?
“The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. That expression captures the collective contribution of the group of seven. Their individual orbits intersected, overlapped and aligned in ways that powered a movement that was inspired by the greater good.”
“Each individual in the group of Tier One champions rose to the moment in ways that were complementary. They provided leadership within their individual spheres of influence. When the smoke cleared, the collective impact of their contributions was transformational,” concludes Kim Stephens.
To learn more about those who were influencers in a profound and public way, click on Tier One Champions for implementing an Ecosystem-based Approach in British Columbia. This is an extract from the Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver from 1994 through 2024.
STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Remembering Barry Janyk, political champion for Smart Development
The context for the Partnership for Water Sustainability celebrating the life of Barry Janyk is the Smartstorm Forum Series. This transformational series fueled a movement and galvanized an ecosystem-based approach to rainwater management and green infrastructure.
Barry Janyk, who was then mayor of Gibsons, infused the SmartStorm Forum Series with his passion. He was the political champion who carried the green infrastructure torch to the Metro Vancouver Regional Board and then to UBCM.
Overcoming Institutional Barriers to Smart Development and Stormwater Management: From Planning to Implementation
Co-hosted by the City of Nanaimo and the provincial and federal governments in January 1999, the wildly successful first event in the SmartStorm Forum Series might well have been a one-off, footnote in history. And then, Gibsons Councillor Barry Janyk stepped forward.
He called me out of the blue and said, “we would like to host a similar event on the Sunshine Coast.” Because we had to turn people away when attendance reached the 250-person capacity of the Coast Bastion, I asked Barry how could his community build on that kind of success and who would travel to the Sunshine Coast.
It was simply amazing. Barry Janyk mobilized his community. Our first interagency planning meeting was hosted by the Sechelt Nation. Barry brought everyone to the table. After that there was no looking back.
A political champion for smart development
He infused the series with his energy and enthusiasm. He coined the term Smart Development to clearly differentiate the BC approach from the Low Impact Development terminology used in the United States.
The legacy of Barry Janyk is that his efforts elevated our profile and credibility with local government elected representatives. He got us onto their radar screen and that enhanced our ability to influence them.
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: Remembering Barry Janyk, political champion for Smart Development.
DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/01/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_remembering-Barry-Janyk_2025.pdf
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