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“Context is everything. BC needs 215,000 hectares of irrigated agriculture to help feed our current population, an increase of 20% over what has access to irrigation today. Another revealing comparison is the amount of irrigated agricultural area within the Metro Vancouver region versus that in the Okanagan Valley: ~13,000 ha versus ~20,000 ha. The Fraser Valley can increase irrigated acreage to 35,000 ha with careful planning, a region where most of the vegetables would come from. From a food security perspective, these comparisons underscore the strategic value of agricultural land in the Fraser Valley,” states Ted van der Gulik.

“The word ‘sustainable’ is an adjective, not a noun. Since it is not a ‘person, place or thing’, how could we achieve that which we cannot see, hear, smell, touch, build, buy or steal? The BC Framework defines Sustainable Service Delivery as a collection of practices that enables continuous delivery of current community services in a responsible manner that does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable Service Delivery is the singular aim. Sound Asset Management practices prevent in-service failure of assets which consequently cause service delivery interruptions. Therefore, Asset Management is the means to achieve the aim,” stated David Allen.

When the water utility operators at the Village of Canal Flats heard about the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) training pilot project being led by Columbia Basin Water Smart and the Environmental Operators Certification Program (EOCP), they knew they had a perfect case study for testing the model: in May 2015, water utility staff from Canal Flats contacted Joe McGowan at the City of Cranbrook and requested peer-to-peer training support from Cranbrook utility personnel with expertise in Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) sewer camera operation.

Located on the east coast of Vancouver Island, the Cowichan region is an incubator for Water Balance approaches that can be replicated elsewhere in the Georgia Basin and beyond. “Recurring region-wide consequences of water-related challenges have also prompted regional action to develop governance structures and processes to make the connections between high-level decision making and actions on the ground. The Regional Surface and Ground Water Management and Governance Study identified co-governance with First Nations as a primary condition for success in managing regional water resources,” stated Keith Lawrence.

“A history of top down management of water in Australia was challenged by drought. Concerned citizens called for implementation of bottom up strategies and inclusion in the decision making process. It was an emerging insight that there were no ‘silver bullet’ single solutions for water management. Both bottom-up and top-down approaches were needed. The local and small scale actions of citizens ensured that the majority of Australian cities did not exhaust urban water supplies. Citizens reduced water use by up to 50% using rainwater harvesting, water efficient appliances, reuse of greywater and changes in behaviour. The solutions dismissed as not viable helped save our cities,” states Peter Coombes.

“Wetlands can provide a number of benefits to society, including: flood control, water treatment, and carbon storage. This workshop will explore gaps and opportunities on how we can protect and conserve wetlands and work towards healthier watersheds. Topics were selected to support key municipal and regional staff and lead conservation groups who are working in the Okanagan. In particular, the afternoon session on stormwater management will provide a more detailed look at one aspect of integrating wetlands into watershed planning,” stated Neil Fletcher.

“Formed in 2001, the Pitu’paq Partnership is a unique collaboration of Mi’kmaq and non-MI’kmaq communities in Cape Breton Island, forming ten communities in all, who meet once a month to address issues of mutual environmental concern. Originally brought together to work on sewage discharge issues into the Bras d’Or Lakes, a unique inland sea, the Pitu’paq Partnership has evolved to adopt ten sustainability principles that change how we think about broader environmental issues,” states Laurie Suitor. ““The Pitu’paq Partnership learned early that in order to make good decisions about water, it needed to think like water. Water does not know boundaries of politics or culture.”

The ‘new normal’ in British Columbia is floods and droughts. The summer dry season has extended on both ends and we can no longer count on a predictable snowpack and reliable rain to maintain a healthy water balance in our watersheds. “After a period of relative hydro-climatic stability, changes in the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere have resulted in the acceleration of the global hydrologic cycle with huge implications for every region of the world and every sector of the global economy,” states Bob Sandford. “We can expect deeper, more persistent drought punctuated by flooding. We expect this trend to continue. We also expect the trend toward extremes to continue.”

“The Canadian Water Summit holds breakout sessions early in the afternoon to get people out of their normal chairs and shake things up. We are the only panel that will be talking about watersheds. Because our audience will be national and international in nature, we will be as frank and forthcoming as possible about the challenges and opportunities. To provide the audience with a common understanding, each member of the panel will speak to Water/Land Use interactions in BC, and along the Fraser River in particular. Each will elaborate on the biggest concerns for the future, anticipated positive changes, what civil society can do to ensure a better future, and where we are going from here,” states Anna Warwick Sears.

In May 2005, the City of Surrey hosted a consultation workshop on green infrastructure. This was the first regional event held in Metro Vancouver under the umbrella of Convening for Action in British Columbia. The workshop was designed to engage the Metro Vancouver Regional Engineers Advisory Committee (REAC). “The workshop proved to be a revelation for all those who participated. As we went around the table, the stories came out as to what Metro Vancouver municipalities were doing. A common refrain was: ‘We didn’t know you were doing that!’ The energy in the room just kept building and building. At the end of the day, we literally tore up our work plan. It was clear that practitioners did not need another guidance document that would go on a shelf. Rather, they needed to network and learn from each other,” recalls Ray Fung.