Kathy Bishop talks about water and leadership on Vancouver Island

Kathy Bishop is Curriculum Chair with Leadership BC Central Vancouver Island. Her organization hosted a dialogue on water and leadership in Nanaimo. She talks to CITinfoResource editor and manager hanspetermeyer about leadership, water, and why Leadership BC Central Vancouver Island has chosen water sustainability as the theme for its leadership dialogue series.

For more information about CAVI go to Convening for Action Vancouver Island (CAVI).

CITinfoResource is a program of the Real Estate Foundation of BC.

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

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Bowker Creek Forum advances a ‘regional team approach’ to achieving water sustainability in the Georgia Basin

What impressed me about the Bowker Creek Forum was the willingness of those in local government to elicit public buy-in. Without that, you cannot move forward. The Forum gives me hope for the future. It was refreshing; it was energizing. I was so thrilled to be part of the day. I felt the camaraderie; I felt an affinity with the people there.

Judy Williams, Co-Chair, Fraser River Coalition.

by Kim A. Stephens

Since 2007 the Convening for Action on Vancouver Island (CAVI) program has been bringing together engineers and planners in local government around water sustainability. One of the key outcomes of the CAVI initiative is relationship-building within, and between, the four populous Island regional districts: Capital, Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo, and Comox Valley. [editor's note: This area generally matches that identified as the Real Estate Foundation of BC's Green Values Vancouver Island target area (the exception is the CRD).]

Over the past 3 years CAVI has been effectively getting the message out about the importance of a shared vision for Vancouver Island communities. ‘Hands across the Malahat’ is the phrase the CAVI Leadership Team is using to draw attention to the need for a consistent Island-wide approach.

What will Vancouver Island look like in 50 years?
These four regional districts represent approximately 90% of the Island's population. This is significant. A ‘regional team approach’ affecting 90% of Islanders has considerable leverage and impact. Focusing on collaboration and partnerships, this team approach can help communities to create the shared vision of what they want Vancouver Island to look like in 50 years.

To get there, the regional team approach seeks to align actions at three scales:

• 
  
  provincial
• regional, and
• local.

Everyone needs to agree on expectations and how all the players will work together. After that, each community can reach its goals in its own way.

The CAVI vision is that we will build and/or rebuild our communities in a way that achieves water sustainability over time. Furthermore, we believe communities can achieve ‘water sustainability’ by implementing ‘green infrastructure’ policies and practices. Underpinning a green infrastructure approach is a ‘design with nature’ philosophy. How communities get there relies on a change in mind-set. The CAVI role is to facilitate that change.

Georgia Basin Collaboration
In February 2010, CAVI partnered with the Capital Regional District and the Bower Creek Initiative to organize the Bowker Creek Forum. Held at the University of Victoria, this event was a celebration of a new way of doing business in the Georgia Basin. The Bowker Creek Forum provided us with a platform for inter-regional sharing. It also gave us an opportunity to connect the dots between five Georgia Basin initiatives:

1. Comox Valley: An Integrated Watershed Approach to Settlement

2. Regional District of Nanaimo: Action for Water

3. Cowichan Valley Regional District: Cowichan Basin Water Management Plan

4. Capital Region: Bowker Creek Blueprint

5. Metro Vancouver: Integrated Liquid Waste & Resource Management Plan

We are emphasizing the Georgia Basin context because Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver are learning from each other, and are moving in the same direction. The common vision for all these initiatives is:
to influence land and water practitioners to learn about and use practices that better balance the necessary relationships of settlement activity and ecological assets in local and regional landscapes.

Mission possible
While the context of the Bowker Creek Forum was Georgia Basin, the spotlight shone most brightly on the Bowker Creek Blueprint. Located in the urbanized heartland of the Capital Regional District, the Bowker Creek watershed is shared by the City of Victoria, City of Oak Bay, and District of Saanich.

Established in 2004, the Bowker Creek Urban Watershed Renewal Initiative is precedent-setting. A multi-jurisdictional effort, it brought together local governments, community groups, post-secondary institutions, and private citizens around a common goal. Major breakthroughs happen when decision makers in government work with grass-roots visionaries in the community to create desired outcomes. This is the essence of the Bowker Creek story.

The Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo, and Comox Valley regional districts have all established provincial water-centric planning precedents; however, these are at a watershed-scale. Looking ahead, the Bowker Creek Blueprint can serve as a catalyst to help all three jurisdictions drill down to the local scale and truly integrate water cycle and land use planning.

About the Bowker Creek Blueprint
The Bowker Creek Blueprint is a "100-Year Action Plan." It will guide watershed and creek corridor restoration as the built environment is redeveloped over time. Because change can be slow in the urban environment, implementation will take decades. Having an action plan in place will ensure that positive changes can happen incrementally, and that opportunities for major improvements can be realized as they arise.

To put it simply, the Bowker Creek Blueprint gives the community a road map for achieving water sustainability in an urban watershed. It's a practical model for other communities with similar aspirations. This is an impressive achievement. The Blueprint goes well beyond any other plan I have seen in my 30-plus years in this field, in terms of how it has achieved consensus and galvanized commitment to move from planning to action on the ground.

Conclusion
The Bowker Creek story is important. When we reflect on what the Bowker Creek Initiative has accomplished, we see that the resulting Blueprint is all about a new form of governance. It starts with a shared vision. Then comes community involvement, followed by support from municipal decision-makers. After that, it's a matter of applying a Design with Nature approach to all development. The result is a pattern of development and change that supports water sustainability, a future that Island communities want.

The Bowker Creek 100-Year Blueprint is an outstanding accomplishment not only because it leads to a desirable future, but also because it demonstrates how a ‘top down bottom up strategy’ leads to practical action. It's an inspiring achievement, one that CAVI believes has the power to positively influence what happens in other parts of the Georgia Basin.

about the author:

Kim A Stephens, MEng, PEng, is Program Coordinator
for the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia.

The Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia is a supported in part by a partnership of the British Columbia Water and Waste Association and the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia.

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

CIT PROJECT SUMMARY: Healthy Water, Healthy Communities – Lake Windermere Project (2005-2009)

CIT Staff Report

The Lake Windermere area in BC's Rocky Mountains is, like so many regions with picturesque communities and rich natural amenities, the target for "amenity migration" growth and development. Although this trend has slowed in the past year due to changes in financial and real estate markets, over at least the past decade the region and the lake have experienced significant changes due to this dynamic.

One of the immediate effects of amenity migration is the development of vacation and secondary homes. A number of organizations came together in 2005 to start what has become the Healthy Water, Healthy Communities – Lake Windermere Project (LWP). Their motivation was the effect that secondary home development was having on on water quality and quantity in the Upper Columbia River, a river which provides water to 15 million downstream users. Lake Windermere had recently experienced a collapse in the burbot (Lota lota) fishery. Because burbot are a top predator, the health of their population is a good indication of the health of the ecosystem as a whole.

With the help of Wildsight, an environmental non-governmental organization (eNGO) based , and through the financial support of CIT, the LWP addresses protection and enhancement of the quality of Lake Windermere. Inter-agency cooperation, scientific water quality monitoring, and public education and engagement are the methodology used.

“It is very much a community based project,” says Wildsight Program Manager Heather Leschied. "The lack of water resource management on and around Lake Windermere has become a concern for area residents and second homeowners. People are seeing that this has long-term implications for the aquatic health of the system."

Results of the Lake-Use Survey indicate widespread public concern about the sustainability of this important water source. Respondents expressed a need for information on maintaining septic systems, as well as concerns about boat traffic congestion, aquatic plant growth, shoreline and upland development, water conservation, and water quality. "The Lake Windermere Project delivers scientifically sound information," says Leschied. "Using this information we then put together education programs and action-based stewardship efforts. They're all part of a community effort to help sustain this economically and environmentally crucial lake."

Wildsight's approach to building community capacity through the project includes supporting the "Lake Windermere Ambassadors." These are a group of committed citizens representing business, government, recreation, second homeowners, local residents (including youth), and LWP. The Ambassadors serve two roles: one, as a long-term advisory committee; two, as a short-term fundraising committee. The committee’s mandate is the protection of the lake in perpetuity. They will direct future water quality monitoring based on the findings of the LWP, and encourage the implementation of policies and guidelines of the forthcoming Lake Windermere Management Plan, and recently implemented Lake Windermere Shoreline Management Guidelines for Fish and Wildlife. "As the project enters it’s final year, Wildsight will be handing it back to the community under the direction of the Lake Windermere Ambassadors," says Lescheid.

Like all Communities in Transition projects, the Lake Windermere Project is a partnership initiative. In the Lake Windermere case, this partnership is comprised of government agencies, First Nations, local organizations, and citizens that has been, as Heather Leschied puts it, "building community value, respect, and understanding of Lake Windermere since 2005."


Footnotes:
The Board of Governors of the Real Estate Foundation awarded $16,000 to support a fourth year of water quality testing and analysis as part of the Healthy Water, Healthy Communities - Lake Windermere Project.

In 2005 Wildsight was honoured with the Gold Award for Conservation in by the Canadian Environmental Awards panel.


©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2009. 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.

Related articles

•  Current CIT Project Overviews (May 2009 CIT Information Resource)

March 2009 Communities in Transition Information Resource

Thanks to Ellen Pond for submitting this aerial view of Kimberley, home to a CIT pilot project on visualizing climate change scenarios. A review of the project will be featured in the May 2009 issue of the CIT Information Resource.

Welcome to the fourth issue of the Communities in Transition Information Resource! We’re starting to get some feedback from you. What we’re hearing tells us that, while there need to be some changes (we’ll probably always being in some kind of ‘transition’ ourselves), we are providing an important service.

That’s good to hear. It’s also consistent with what CIT is about, and what the Real Estate Foundation of BC is about. ... Keep your comments coming. Post your comments, or contact Foundation staff directly . The conversation about land use practices and conservation that we’re committed to supporting gets stronger and deeper with your participation. (more at... )


IN THE MARCH 2009 ISSUE:

Learning from Reversing the Tide: A Conversation with Victor Cumming
by hans peter meyer
"Communities and businesses involved in the forest or wood sector have been operating in a policy context that doesn't encourage local or regional solutions using forestry as an economic driver. This is based on an assumption that entrepreneurs will look after things, that they will create and embrace the opportunities. The consequence of following this assumption, however, is that we've seen the centralizing of capital, and a centralizing of control over the Annual Allowable Cut. This doesn't leave much room for community based development or even small business development. The opportunity and the complexity that a larger regional approach could address is lost because the current provincial government isn’t interested, and because of the limited sub-regional focus that municipalities, CFDCs, and RDs take in their economic development activities." (more at.... )

Community and Sustainability: The Conversation Today
by Tim Pringle
"Has the market slowdown had an impact on the conversation? Yes. In some ways it's underlining what northern communities have been learning over the past decade: that a community's ability to survive is more than a question of economics. From Dawson Creek to the South Okanagan, to the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island I'm seeing and hearing more support for the ecological viewpoint than ever. (more at... )

Launch of "new" Water Balance Model earns Award and 300 new Subscribers in 2009
by Kim A. Stephens
The Water Balance Model (WBM) ... is the professional computational and communication backbone that will help local governments achieve the sustainable reality of implementing best practices the greening of the man-made environment. (more at... )

Speaking About Trees...
by hans peter meyer
Our relations to trees and forests is complex. The presence of our settlements on the East Coast of Vancouver Island is a testament to the richness that the trees have given us. We would do well to speak more of and about the trees, the forests, and how we sustain them, that we may be sustained. (more at... )

Green Values Vancouver Island
...[M]any communities are struggling to deal effectively with the pressures of growth and development. GVVI is envisioned as a way to support local public, [conservation & stewardship sector], and private sector leadership and to advance the level of development practices on the Island towards sustainability. (more at... )


ABOUT COMMUNITIES IN TRANSITION
If you're new to CIT, go to www.communitytransition.org/about for background on this Special Program of the Real Estate Foundation of BC.

For more information regarding CIT applications and projects please contact Jen McCaffrey, CIT Coordinator with the Real Estate Foundation of BC at info@communitytransition.org or 604-688-6800 /1-866-912-6800.

We look forward to sharing these resources with you. We welcome your suggestions as to how we can be more effective in communicating with you and your peers.


PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CIT SITE IS STILL IN DEVELOPMENT.
We are making a number of changes to make the site more functional as a place of conversation. We hope to see these changes in place within about four months. In the meantime, keep the conversation going:
* let us know how we’re doing
* let us know where you think we should be putting our attention
* give our writers and researchers feedback on the conversations they’re engaged in.

You can email me directly at "editor (at) communtytransition.org". You can also contact Jen, Tim, or Karin Kirkpatrick (Executive Director at the Real Estate Foundation as of November 1st) through the Foundation.

hans peter meyer
CIT Information Resource Editor & Writer
editor (at) communitytransition.org


IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO RECEIVE CIT RELATED EMAILS, please let us know with an email to info@communitytransition.org marked "REMOVE" in the subject header.

Editorial Notes, March 19, 2009

Welcome to the fourth issue of the Communities in Transition Information Resource! We’re starting to get some feedback from you. What we’re hearing tells us that, while there need to be some changes (we’ll probably always being in some kind of ‘transition’ ourselves), we are providing an important service.

That’s good to hear. It’s also consistent with what CIT is about, and what the Real Estate Foundation of BC is about. We surveyed land use practitioners in 2007 about the Foundation’s 20 year legacy, and many pointed to the success of a practice that emphasizes sharing research, resources, and information. The CIT Information Resource is an intentional extension of that practice. Keep your comments coming. Post your comments, or contact Foundation staff directly . The conversation about land use practices and conservation that we’re committed to supporting gets stronger and deeper with your participation.

The breadth of this conversation is a testament to the complexity with which BC communities understand their relationship to the land base. This issue gives a taste of that diversity. Our “cover picture” comes from Kimberley, which is hosting an important pilot project on visualizing climate change scenarios. (In our May issue we’ll feature a report on several current projects, including this one in Kimberley and the province-wide “Smart Planning” initiative.) Our feature article focuses on learnings from the October 2008 Reversing the Tide conference in Prince George. The conversation with long-time community economic development practitioner Victor Cumming points to challenges that face rural communities across the province, and to some basic, yet challenging, shifts that need to happen for community sustainability. For over 20 years Tim Pringle has been listening to and participating in the “conversation” about sustainability that’s been taking shape in BC’s communities. His article gives a snapshot of the current state of that “conversation,” drawing on the Foundation’s work in Northern BC, and on what he’s hearing from BC communities post-market collapse.

Kim Stephens returns to the CIT Information Resource with more news about ‘design with nature’ approaches to community, land development, and water management. This time he brings an overview of the Water Balance Model (WBM). Revamped towards the end of 2008, the “new” WBM has earned an award -- and is quickly attracting new municipal participation and application. One of our editorial team described Kim’s treatment as the best overview she’s come across.

A column on forests, conservation, and land use on Vancouver Island touches on challenges facing many Island communities with an historic forest economy. It is important to stress that while the opinions expressed in this, or other, editorial columns are those of the editor, they are not necessarily expressive of CIT or the Real Estate Foundation policy. Instead, they are intended as a spur to dialogue on important issues facing rural communities in BC. We encourage you, as practitioners in community, and as readers of this CIT Information Resource, to continue the conversation about community, values, and change. Please use the comment forms on this site. Or send us your ‘letters to the editor.’ Tell us what you think about the editor’s opinions - or those of any other writer here at CIT!

Finally, we’ve posted an important backgrounder to the Foundation’s Green Values Vancouver Island (GVVI) initiative. As Tim points out in his article, GVVI is one of those instances where the Foundation is taking a strong role in advancing sustainable land use practices.

Finally, it is our editorial policy to encourage the use of the materials published through the CIT Information Resource. We hope that you, as readers and as practitioners in community transition, will take what you like here, reference it, and share it for educational and non-commercial purpose. We only ask that you let us know how you are using it, even if it’s just to circulate an article in the office or amongst friends. We look forward to hearing from you!


hans peter meyer
Editor, Communities in Transition Information Resource
editor (at) communitytransition.org

Launch of "new" Water Balance Model earns Award and 300 new Subscribers in 2009

By Kim A. Stephens

The Water Balance Model (WBM), as an approach to managing rainwater, was first introduced in 2003. It was an impressive step towards applying a ‘design with nature’ solution to a growing problem for many municipalities. A ‘new’ WBM was launched at the end of 2008 to considerable acclaim. It garnered the Premier’s Award for Innovation & Excellence in February 2009 and considerable attention as an important “decision support tool” to help improve the way we develop land in British Columbia.

The response of local governments has been very encouraging. Since the beginning of the year, over 300 individuals and organizations have taken out Trial Subscriptions, with new subscriptions being announced almost daily. The majority of major municipalities in Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley are now members of the Water Balance Model Partnership, and membership on Vancouver Island is growing rapidly.

The Need
The drought, forest fires and floods that British Columbia experienced in 2003 created a teachable moment in terms of how governments at every level view water. The drought resulted in many streams being at or below historical flow conditions; the public water supply was in jeopardy; and a survey showed that over 2 million people were affected, 84 water systems were under stress, and 43 more systems suffered in some degree.

“The 2003 situation highlighted the need to integrate ‘green’ development practices with water resource management,” says Ted van der Gulik, Chair of the Inter-Governmental Partnership (IGP) that developed and maintains the WBM. “But how [were we to do that]? A user-friendly tool was needed to evaluate the hydrologic effectiveness of site development practices that capture rain where it falls. The web-based Water Balance Model is that tool.”

Objectives
The IGP includes three provincial Ministries, (Agriculture and Lands, Environment, and Community Development), numerous local governments from four regions within BC, and three federal agencies. The IGP developed the WBM to support and/or help achieve these community planning objectives:

1. promote a design with nature way-of-thinking,
2. adapt to climate change,
3. reduce our hydrologic footprint,
4. create liveable communities,
5. reduce outdoor water use,
6. reduce rainwater runoff,
7. reduce flooding of agricultural land, and
8. protect and/or restore stream health.

Climate Change Adaptation
The WBM is unique, bridges engineering and planning, links development sites to the stream and watershed, and enables science-based runoff performance targets to be established. The ‘design with nature’ paradigm captures the essence of climate change adaptation. “Adaptation is about responding to the changes that will inevitably occur,” says Lynn Kriwoken, Director, Innovation and Planning in the Watershed Stewardship Division of the Ministry of Environment. “Adaptation is 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.”

Lynn Kriwoken is the Province’s lead person for delivering Living Water Smart , BC’s Water Plan. An over-arching goal is to encourage land and water managers to do business differently. The WBM adds depth to Living Water Smart.

About the Water Balance Model
The WBM is an easy-to-use tool. It is able to calculate in minutes or hours what previously took days or weeks, and enables urban planners, drainage engineers, developers and stewardship groups to:
* quantify the impact of development on rainwater runoff at a site,
* assess how rainwater leaving the site affects adjacent areas such as agriculture and urban/rural developments, fish streams or water for human use, and
* select on-site source controls so that, ideally, rainwater that leaves the site would be the same after the development as before.

Since 2003, the total investment to develop and enhance the WBM exceeds $1.0 million, including in-kind contributions for outreach and practitioner education. But no monetary value can be attached to the real benefits to society of an improved environment through reduced erosion of streams, increased carrying capacity of watercourses for fish spawning, increased storage capacity of topsoil to capture rainfall or reducing irrigation water demands during hot summer growing periods.

Subscribers, who contribute annual fees, consist mainly of local governments, but also include universities and consultants. Universities are key because they are training the next generation of planners (who prepare development plans) and local government engineers (who prepare the physical drainage and infrastructure plans). In addition, and thanks to funding from Canada Mortgage and Housing, WBM is now available to all provinces across Canada.

In summary, this tool is the professional computational and communication backbone that will help local governments achieve the sustainable reality of implementing best practices the greening of the man-made environment.

The Water Balance Model for British Columbia is a provincial tool developed under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia . Project partners include the British Columbia Water and Waste Association and the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia .

Kim A Stephens, MEng, PEng, is Program Coordinator for the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia.

©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2009. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

Editorial Notes - February 4, 2009

©Lora Tryon / 2008-2009

COLLABORATIONS and partnerships are fundamental to the success of CIT projects. They “add value” to projects by bringing people and resources, often with diverse perspectives on land and conservation, together in the pursuit of common goals: to help communities make effective transitions.

This issue of the CIT Information Resource highlights several CIT collaborations, in projects as diverse as housing, conservation, and sustainable community development. Our featured photo by Lora Tryon, shows the Millard Creek estuary in the Comox Valley. It's a fitting image, as this small watershed is the site of a collaboration between the conservation & stewardship (C&S) sector and local government in the Comox Valley, a collaboration that should make a positive impact on land use policies and development in the region.

As our guest columnist, Kim Stephens talks about the ground-breaking work being done by CAVI (Convening for Action on Vancouver Island). Kim's focus is on the "Learning Lunches" hosted by CAVI in several Island communities, involving the partnership of local governments, environmental non-governmental organizations, provincial ministries, federal government departments, as well as organizatons like BC Water & Waste Association and the Real Estate Foundation of BC. One of the outcomes of this informal series is the innovative Millard/Piercy project.

"When Things Slow Down” looks at the kinds of things land use practitioners are doing now that construction and development-driven workloads are easing off. As well as investing in much-needed planning, it's a good time to be undertaking the kind of data-gathering work being done through projects like the Millard/Piercy watershed inventory.

The third and final in a series of columns on Climate Change challenges land use practitioners to re-imagine our understanding of what our towns and cities look like, how they function, what we need to do to adapt to not only changing climatic conditions, but the financial impact of these changes. Again, collaborations like CAVI and those taking shape in the Comox Valley suggest that many partners are looking for ways to go beyond jurisdictional limitations to address issues that call for regional and watershed-based approaches.

This issue’s interview with Tim Pringle, Director of Special Programs at the Real Estate Foundation, and responsible for CIT, focuses on recent housing research being done in northern BC communities. As Tim explains, this is not just about shelter or land use; it’s also about the economic and social well-being of communities. While the focus is on northern communities, we think our readers in the rest of BC will find the preliminary findings and Tim’s observations helpful in deepening the conversation about community sustainability.

For our next issue (arriving in your “in-box” mid March 2009) we’re working on materials related to: reviews of current CIT projects, an introduction to the thorny issue of performance-based approaches to land use, and some thoughts, several months after the event, about the October 2008 Rural Revitalization conference in Prince George, and more conversations with land use practitioners. Your contributions are welcome! Let us know how we’re doing. Let us know where you think we should be putting our attention. Give our writers and researchers feedback on the conversations they’re engaged in.

Please note that the CIT Information Resource is still in development. We are making a number of changes to make the site more functional as a place for conversation. We’d like to thank the Real Estate Institute of BC, and particularly Chris Alexandrovich, for helping us keep the conversation going by hosting this issue.

You can email me directly at "editor (at) communtytransition.org". Or, you can contact Jen or Tim or Karin Kirkpatrick (Executive Director at the Real Estate Foundation as of November 1st) through the Foundation (www.realestatefoundation.com). We look forward to hearing from you!

hans peter meyer
Editor, Communities in Transition Information Resource

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©hanspetermeyer.ca / 2009

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.

- 30 -

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