Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC

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Ecological Accounting Process

    STORY BEHIND THE STORY OF THE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE PARTNERSHIP IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Storytelling, which is really a way to describe our world views, is transformative and therefore is a powerful tool for bringing about behavioural change,” stated Ray Fung, former Director of Engineering in local government in the Metro Vancouver region


    In the 2000s, the Green Infrastructure Partnership played a prominent role in leading changes in local government attitudes in the Metro Vancouver region. This influence cascaded from elected representative at Municipal Council and Regional Board tables to practitioners in the trenches. “Bringing together and inspiring people, especially those in the trenches, to keep fighting the good fight,” stated Ray Fung. “That is basically what we did in the 2000s and continue to do! How do you judge that time with the advantage of hindsight? It is always a confluence of different things.”

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    REGIONAL GROWTH STRATEGIES FOR HEALTHY COMMUNITIES: “Each time we face an environmental challenge, we are once again looking at how we do business. A changing context causes us to ask important questions about how we might do things better,” stated Dale Wall, former Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs


    “The provincial government had taken on an interest in climate action after the 2003 Kelowna fires. And we were looking in a new way at infrastructure innovation and the consequences of how we went about developing regions and urban spaces. It became clear that if one did not have a way of building confidence amongst practitioners, the rate of innovation would be slow. And we needed quite a lot of innovation in order to achieve some of the things that we hoped to achieve through regional growth strategies,” stated Dale Wall.

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    GEORGIA BASIN INITIATIVE LEGACY RIPPLES THROUGH TIME: “If we have lost anything in the last 30 years, it is a strong provincial commitment to supporting community and regional planning,” stated Joan Sawicki, land and resource management champion, and former provincial cabinet minister


    “As Parliamentary Secretary, I had a visionary document and strong personal support from Minister Marzari at the top,” stated Joan Sawicki. “And I had Erik Karlsen’s on-the-ground connections with Basin communities and their issues. All I had to do was run with it. And that’s what we did! Most of my work was just going out to communities. Talking and listening to everybody. The Georgia Basin Initiative was successful because we had the right people at the right time doing the right thing. How rare is that in government?”

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    BALANCING ACT – H20 AND HEALTHY STREAMS: “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, career environmental champion within local government in British Columbia


    “At a critical moment, members of the Partnership for Water Sustainability 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,” stated Richard Boase. The Partnership brought funding to the table, UBC’s Hans Schreier provided grad students and brought in other professors, and North Vancouver provided the case studies.

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    CONVENING FOR ACTION AT THE BC LAND SUMMIT: “We are saying there is a way of designing communities and making decisions differently so that outcomes are restorative in nature within the urban development context,” stated Richard Boase, Vice-President of the Partnership for Water Sustainability


    The 2024 BC Land Summit potentially represents a seminal moment in what the Partnership anticipates will be an “awakening process” leading to a fundamental attitude change about use and conservation of both land and water in British Columbia. With an attitude change, anything is possible. “At the BC Land Summit, Paul Chapman and I will tag-team to present the local government and stewardship sector perspectives, respectively. He and I are working from different directions to bring about an attitude shift,” stated Richard Boase.

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    BUILD THE NETWORK TO ACHIEVE MISSION IMPACT: “Growing the network is all about a culture change that requires a different mindset and a commitment to something bigger,” stated Dr. Jane Wei-Skillern of the University of California at Berkeley


    “Once a network is up and running and proves itself to be effective, it becomes the primary vehicle for change, rather than the individual organizations themselves. The leaders who work in this way are really competent in what they do. They have great people skills, they are good organizational managers, and they are good at seeing the big picture and identifying where they need to engage others and build the network to solve the problem. I have been studying people who have done this well and documented the patterns and themes from their work,” stated Jane Wei-Skillern.

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    INSTILL A CULTURE THAT SUPPORTS CHAMPIONS: “It takes willpower to develop a culture,” states Ramin Seifi, former General Manager of engineering and planning with Langley Township in the Metro Vancouver region


    Resource protection – for groundwater supply and fisheries habitat – is the original driver for implementing ‘green infrastructure’ in Langley. For the past two decades, Township staff have learned and adapted. “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. Instilling this culture takes years, sometimes generations. And that really is, I hope, the story of Langley,” stated Ramin Seifi.

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    KEEP IT SIMPLE, PRACTICAL AND IMPLEMENTABLE: “If the process is strategic and well thought out, as well as practical and implementable from the start, then it is just a matter of sticking to it until you deliver it across the line,” stated Melony Burton, Manager of Infrastructure Planning with the City of Port Coquitlam in the Metro Vancouver region


    “In my work, I continue to apply the ten principles that I developed at Coquitlam when we delivered nine Integrated Watershed Management Plans in just 10 years. Three of the 10 are universally applicable to any area of infrastructure planning: take action, start small, stay practical. Staying true to these has helped me deliver so much. Develop a really good strategy coming out of the gate and stay super focused. Do not go down rabbit holes. You can always circle back later,” stated Melony Burton

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    CARING FOR THE LAND MEANS GOING BEYOND JUST DOING ENOUGH: “Blue Ecology and EAP describe a whole-system approach to caring for our Natural Commons and ecological assets,” states Tim Pringle, a founding director and Past-President of the Partnership for Water Sustainability


    “EAP is an expression of Blue Ecology. Because nature is a system, you cannot slice and dice it. EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, recognizes this and is a financial tool to give streams the support they need to survive in the local government setting. Streams need a place to be. If we cannot get our heads around that, we are not going to keep our streams. EAP provides a value picture of a stream system as a land use. Think of Blue Ecology as a compass in terms of how it relates to a water-first approach. The compass points the way forward. We are on a journey,” stated Tim Pringle.

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    THERE IS NO TIME TO RE-INVENT THE WHEEL: “We are a movement built around water sustainability,” stated Ray Fung, a founding director of the Partnership for Water Sustainability, in his closing reflections on what he heard at the Summit at the Bastion in Nanaimo


    Ray Fung captured the mood of the summit with this summation: “The Partnership is seen as a resource that is stable, that is there, and that people can draw upon. I liked the comment that THIS IS A MOVEMENT. I find that is really inspiring to not see ourselves just as a network. We leave the summit inspired to figure out how the FORM of the Partnership will follow the FUNCTION. We can learn things from expanding our perspective. Part of that holistic approach includes the SPIRITUAL as well as the physical connection to the land.”

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