Welcome to the March postings of the CIT Information Resource

What's happening in land use and conservation in BC's non-metro communities? 


That's one of the questions that we're addressing with Communities in Transition Information Resource. We're also trying to connect a number of projects and people working on ways to enhance sustainability and quality of life in BC's non-metro communities.

Communities in Transition is a signature program at the Real Estate Foundation of BC. It was initiated in 2004 by the Governors of the Foundation as a way to focus some funding on the land-related challenges faced by rural and small town communities. Over its 22 years the Foundation has awarded 1500 grants for initiatives and projects in communities in BC. Of the 533 grants made since 2004, 10% have been for CIT projects that engage CIT partners and offer replicable services and deliverables in non-metro areas across the province, from Fort St. John to Campbell River.

These projects represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, not only for the communities affected, but for any and all other communities that can tap into what is happing through CIT. The Foundation is able to extend the reach of this knowledge and expertise by recirculating it through CITinfoResource via our blog, Facebook, and Twitter posts.

The March 2010 posts 

Not all of what happens in our posts is about non-metro BC, however. For example, this month we've got the Foundation's Executive Director, Karin Kirkpatrick, talking about her decision to park her car and use public transit. Karin also talks about how her choices in metro Vancouver are different than those in a rural community, and about the Foundation's keen interest in innovative approaches to land use and transportation issues in these more challenging contexts.

As part of our commitment to extending the "life" and "reach" of real-time events we're posting Mark Holland's Resilient Cities Manifesto, his summary address  to the October 2009 Gaining Ground Resilient Cities summit, as well as a followup audio interview with Mark about the Resilient Cities Manifesto and why it is significant. The Real Estate Foundation of BC makes significant investments in conferences like the Gaining Ground summits and the 2009 BC Land Summit. They're important resources for land use practitioners throughout BC. Through interviews and reports (before and after the event), key themes and ideas are re-presented from a variety of perspectives on land use, development, and conservation. CITinfoResource helps these ideas and perspectives reach a broader audience than the 100s who can actually attend the events. Ever wonder what a planner from Cumberland took in at the BC Land Summit? Or what a city councillor from Kelowna or a land trust activist from the Comox Valley brought home from Resilient Cities? These are a handful of examples of how CITinfoResource.com is linking non-metro resources across BC.

Among these resources are the Regional Innovation Chairs (RICs) located in a number of BC's post-secondary institutions. One of these is Dr. John Church, BC's RIC in Cattle Industry Sustainability (Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops). We have an audio post with John talking about his current work and the challenges facing meat producers and BC's grasslands. The Real Estate Foundation of BC has contributed to several RIC endowments, including the Chair at TRU. The work being done by John, by Dr. Nicole Vaugeois (in sustainability tourism at Vancouver Island University – read about it here), and George Penfold (in community economic development at Selkirk College in Castlegar – read his post on BC's rural policy here) is viewed by the Governors of the Foundation as a long-term investment in a range of sustainable land uses in BC. 

The Governors have also identified key areas of the province as worthy of special programs. One of these is a high-growth and development part of Vancouver Island. Kim Stephens is Program Coordinator for the Water Sustainability Action Plan for BC. He's also very active in the Convening for Action Vancouver Island initiative that has received Foundation support. In this posting of CITinfoResource Kim writes about the February 2010 Bowker Creek Forum and why it's an important part of water and land use sustainability on Vancouver Island.

Staff CIT project reviews are a regular part of the CITinfoResource postings. This month we feature two innovative First Nations' Comprehensive Community Planning projects, one at Musqueam in the greater Vancouver region, the other at Sliammon north of Powell River. Addressing a range of complex land use, social, and economic issues and involving innovative engagement processes, these projects are, as one participant put it, helping these communities prepare for the "day after treaty."

We close this posting of CITinfoResource with an audio interview with long-time Invermere realtor and past-Chair of the Real Estate Foundation of BC, Barry Brown-John. Barry is familiar with the industry perspective on land; as a Governor with the Foundation he's become an advocate for sustainable approaches that will benefit the long-term health of the real estate industry. In this interview he talks about the real estate market, sustainability, the Kootenays, and his experiences with the Gaining Ground series of summits.

Changes at CITinfoResource.com

Within the coming months long-awaited changes in the Real Estate Foundation of BC website will begin to show up as changes to CITinfoResource.com. In the meantime, we're moving to more regular postings, rather than releasing 5-8 posts every 2 months. We'll still be providing a 6-times-a-year compendium of recents posts (like this one you're reading), but the workflow of producing (and reading or listening to) CITinfoResource posts will be spread out over several weeks. 

Some posts to look forward to in coming weeks: 

• George Penfold (audio) on the March 2010 BC rural development conference in Port Hardy, 
• Tim Pringle (audio) responding to Kim Fowler's February 2010 exploration of "performance vs. regulatory" approaches to sustainability, and
• the second in a series of video interviews with Gaining Ground wunderkind Gene Miller (the first one is posted here). 

We think that posting more regularly will make our material more useful. Let us know what you think!

Please share these resources

Social media like our blog, Facebook, and Twitter accounts make it easy to achieve one of our goals: circulating interesting, information, sometimes challenging material to land use practitioners across BC. If you're on Facebook or Twitter, please add us to your lists – and please reTweet and share items that you find interesting and engaging. 

We also hope to see your comments and "letters to the editor." Not only do these enrich the conversation; they let others know about your experience, knowledge, and interests, all of which can make the difference to someone working on a project in a community half-way across the province from you.

As I said in the opening, collaboration and sharing of resources are keys to the success of both the Real Estate Foundation of BC and of the many projects and organizations that have received Foundation support over 22+ years. The reproduction of CIT Information Resource articles and materials for non-profit educational purposes is an extension of this approach. In return, we ask that you please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

hanspetermeyer

Editor,

CITinfoResource


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©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2010. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website for non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses