Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC

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Richard Boase

    EVERY DECADE A DEFINING QUESTION IS THIS ONE: How will Southwest British Columbia absorb millions more people AND restore urban watershed health?


    The Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation is a sweeping narrative. It brings to life an exciting period in local government “convening for action” history. The storyline weaves quotable quotes by those who were in the frontlines of the green infrastructure movement, and reveals their stories behind the story. “Our record of success during the 2006-2011 golden period was our springboard. The period 2012 through 2017 offered such promise, and then along came the pandemic. COVID set us back. Creating change is not easy,” stated Richard Boase.

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    SET THE GOAL, LEARN BY DOING, AND ADAPT TO CREATE LIVABLE COMMUNITIES: The context for action in the 2000s was the need to accommodate an extra million people by Year 2030 yet preserve regional livability


    “Collaboration is essential. We also have to bring people together. If we find a common purpose that we are pursuing together, there really is nothing that we cannot accomplish,” stated former BC Premier Campbell in 2010. “Look long term. Think about what is best for the future. Not for you, but for those who will follow you. Think about how we can create a better environment that others can live in and benefit from. We get to make our own choices. We get to make our own future. We just have to have the vision to imagine, and the tenacity to pursue it.”

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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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    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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    A PATHWAY TO WATER RECONCILIATION: Blue Ecology offers HOPE and removes the FEAR


    Michael Blackstock believes that a message of hope is paramount in these times of droughts, forest fires and floods. “Rather than looking through a cumulative effects lens, I also see the concept of ‘cumulative healing’ landing as a way to give back to water and land. Rather than wondering how much more can we take or impact land before we need to stop, instead we should ask how much longer should we let the water and land heal, before we ask for more,” states Michael Blackstock.

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    FOREST FIRES AND MASS EVACUATIONS: In 2023, history repeated itself in the Kelowna region


    “Mother Nature has an amazing sense of timing. On the 20th anniversary of the evacuation of 27,000 people from Kelowna due to forest fires, history repeated itself in August in the Kelowna region, in particular West Kelowna. We have had two decades to prepare for the obvious and the inevitable. 2003 was the first of a series of teachable years, with the full onslaught of a changing climate hitting hard as of 2015. Climate change is accelerating. There is no time to re-invent the wheel, fiddle, or go down cul-de-sacs. Understand how the past informs the future and build on that experience,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “We have raised expectations that communities can do a better job of managing land and water. But what happens if knowledge, experience and the lessons we are learning are not passed on or are lost?” – a question posed in 2007 by Jay Bradley, Chair of the Vancouver Island Coordinating Team


    This edition brings to a close the current season (January through June 2023) of the Waterbucket eNews weekly newsletter series. We celebrate the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. During the past 5-month period, the Partnership for Water Sustainability has published 20 feature stories. This finale edition constitutes our “season in review”. To refresh reader memories about the topics and how much ground we have covered, we have brought forward the headline plus defining quotable quote from each of the 20 storylines.

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    Build bridges of understanding, pass the baton!


    “A Partnership strength is the real-world experience we bring because of our multiple initiatives under Living Water Smart Actions. Under that vision, various building blocks processes have evolved over the decades. The Watershed Security Strategy and Fund, an initiative of the current provincial government, is the obvious mechanism to revisit, understand, learn from, and leverage past successes in the building blocks continuum. We have tools to help do the job. We can achieve better stewardship of BC’s water resources for present and future generations,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    What does “water reconciliation” look like?


    “We have landed at the crux of two of the most important issues facing Canadians – relationships with First Nations and relationships with water – in an era when we must also adapt to a changing climate. Communities have a once in a generation opportunity to get our relationships with both right, and then start back down the river of time – this time together. To move this bold idea forward, the Watershed Moments Team is showcasing the Blue Ecology vision for interweaving Western science and Indigenous knowledge,” stated Richard Boase.

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