Learning Lunches: Protecting Stream Health and Building Sustainable Communities

by Kim A. Stephens, MEng, PEng

Vancouver Island is the pilot region for a precedent-setting approach to informing and educating those who influence or impact how land is developed and water is used. Through CAVI - Convening for Action on Vancouver Island, we are cultivating broad, inclusive partnerships and collaboration that reach for the common goal of sustainability. In short, we set our sights on the common good and challenge the old barriers of jurisdictional interests. To achieve the common good, CAVI is bringing together:

* Local government – those who plan and regulate land use;
* Developers – those who build;
* The Province – those who provide the legislative framework;
* Universities and colleges – those who provide research; and
* The conservation and stewardship (C&S) sector – those who advocate conservation of resources.


Our immediate objective is to foster ‘green choices’ that will ripple through time, and will be cumulative in creating sustainable, liveable communities and protecting stream health. We are NOT saying that every community must follow the same formula; what we are saying is that everyone needs to agree on universal values, and thereafter each community can reach its goal in its own way.


Regional Team Approach

The CAVI vision is to move toward water sustainability by implementing green infrastructure policies and practices. CAVI defines green infrastructure in terms of a Design with Nature approach to land development and climate change adaptation.


Adaptation is about responding to the changes that will inevitably occur. Adaptation takes place at the community level and is therefore about collaboration. If we can show how to get the water part right, then other parts are more likely to follow.


To get to the big picture, it starts with the smallest pieces. Hence, the CAVI program is advancing a regional team approach that aligns local actions with provincial policy goals, in particular those defined in the Living Water Smart guidance document.



Vancouver Island Learning Lunch Seminar Series

Living Water Smart is the provincial government’s vision and plan to keep BC's water healthy and secure for the future. An over-arching goal is to encourage land and water managers and users to do business differently. Living Water Smart provided context that helped us frame the learning outcomes for the 2008 Vancouver Island Learning Lunch Seminar Series.


“When we came up with the Learning Lunch idea, our objectives and expectations were quite modest,” says John Finnie, CAVI Chair. “We wanted to explore a collaborative approach that we believed would help local governments make informed land development decisions that meet multiple objectives.”


“Initially we were thinking in terms of a small group setting...perhaps 12 to 15 people drawn from the various departments within a willing local government. We wanted to bring together engineers, planners, building inspectors, and bylaw enforcement officers; and we wanted the focus to be on aligning efforts to implement effective green infrastructure.”


The idea resonated, so much so that the original inter-departmental concept quickly mushroomed into an inter-governmental concept. The Cowichan Valley Regional District and City of Courtenay both volunteered to host a regional seminar series, in part because of the opportunity to play a leadership role provincially.


Each series comprised three seminars. Spreading the curriculum over three sessions enables participants to take in new information, reflect on it, blend it with their own experience, test it, and eventually apply it in making decisions. In terms of the actual curriculum design, it was a matter of drawing upon a number of provincial guidance documents (notably Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia) and making them interesting and relevant to a mixed audience.


Overview of Series Outcomes

The Learning Lunch Seminar Series helped local government representatives conceptualize why a consistent regional approach to rainwater management and green infrastructure is needed.


For Kate Miller, Environmental Manager for the Cowichan Valley Regional District, the series provided an opportunity to develop a policy framework for the Valley. “It meant that we could foster an informed dialogue that would ultimately lead to adoption of a set of tools for implementing green infrastructure region-wide.”


As an outcome of the series, Cowichan Valley local governments proceeded with the Cowichan Valley Water Balance Model Forum in October 2008. Three willing development proponents and their planning/design consultants were invited to develop case study applications of the Water Balance Model, a web-based tool for evaluating how to achieve runoff-based performance targets.


The case studies were shared at the Forum in order to help build a common understanding. This educational approach is helping Comox Valley local governments identify and empower a core group of local champions who will then have the expertise to apply and advance the water balance approach to land development.


"Our challenge is to work around and with boundaries," says Derek Richmond, Manager of Engineering for the City of Courtenay. "Ideally, we would like to shift the paradigm from boundaries to areas of commonality.” For Derek, the series provided the springboard for bottom-up regional action in the Comox Valley to communicate, cooperate, collaborate and coordinate.


An example is the Millard/Piercy Gaps Analysis Project, which has evolved from a simple regulatory gaps analysis to a regional pilot that will inform watershed-based land use planning across jurisdictions. “The current process has the Comox Valley Land Trust collaborating with regional and municipal planners, engineers, and elected representatives to develop a new way of doing business in the Comox Valley.”


A Look Ahead

In undertaking the Learning Lunch series, the initial limited objective was simply to explore a collaborative approach to practitioner education. Success begets success. Now that the vision for a regional team approach has taken on a life of its own in both the Cowichan and Comox Valleys, CAVI believes the time is right to start talking about Vancouver Island as a whole in terms of sustainability, collaboration and creative partnerships.


Who is CAVI?

The CAVI Partnership comprises the British Columbia Water & Waste Association, the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia, the provincial Ministries of Environment and Community Development, and the Green Infrastructure Partnership. CAVI is co-funded by the Province and the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia. The Water Sustainability Committee of the BCWWA is the managing partner and is providing program delivery.

The CAVI Leadership Team comprises individuals from across sectors and representing local and provincial governments, Highlands Stewardship Foundation, POLIS Project (University of Victoria), Nature’s Revenue Streams, Real Estate Foundation of BC, Vancouver Island Farmers Alliance, Islands Trust, and the Water Sustainability Action Plan.

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Kim A. Stephens is Program Coordinator, Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia. He can be reached at sustainabilitycoordinator@shaw.ca or through the www.waterbucket.ca site.


References:

* CAVI - Convening for Action on Vancouver Island

* Living Water Smart
* Millard/Piercy Gaps Analysis Project
* Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia
* Water Balance Model
* 2008 Vancouver Island Learning Lunch Seminar Series

©Kim Stephens / 2009