Water’s Edge Day celebrates Vancouver's waterfront
The executive director of the Georgia Strait Alliance says she’s often been frustrated when she’s heard about community consultations after they’ve occurred.
Christianne Wilhelmson says her nonprofit organization is trying to address that by facilitating an ongoing process of discussions about Vancouver’s waterfront involving a large number of organizations and residents.
In a phone interview with the Georgia Straight from her home, she explained that this approach is called a “collective-impact model”. “It’s the idea that long-term social change comes from a collaborative model that is facilitated by a backbone organization,” Wilhelmson said.
It was inspired by the work of the New York–based Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, which has brought 800 organizations together to discuss shoreline issues in New York and New Jersey. The Georgia Strait Alliance has already held forums this year at UBC Robson Square and SFU Harbour Centre to examine waterfront ecosystems, transportation on the waterfront, living on the waterfront, access to nature, and working on the waterfront. On Sunday (October 5), the nongovernmental organization will hold a family-friendly Water’s Edge Day to invite the public to its first celebration of the waterfront.
“There’s going to be a whole bunch of free activities, from a Tsleil-Waututh canoe tour, cycle tours, and electric-boat interpretive tours of English Bay,” Wilhelmson said.
There’s also an art and historical-photo exhibition called Where Land and Water Meet. On Thursday (October 2), local historian John Atkin will deliver a lecture at the Vancouver Maritime Museum to help people reconnect with what has occurred on the waterfront in the past.
The goal of these events is to get citizens more engaged in waterfront issues. “Vancouver is doing an amazing job at trying to create the greenest city and taking action on land,” she stated. “But we also need to have conversations about the interface between land and water.”
At the previous waterfront forums, participants included planners, environmental organizations, Port Metro Vancouver, municipal officials, First Nations, and waterfront-based industries. Wilhelmson said that in the spring, the Georgia Strait Alliance will host a citizens’ forum so the public can offer its input. She noted that Vancouver’s waterfront includes not only Burrard Inlet but also the Fraser River to the south.
“I’m sure most people out there would love to see less conflict around development, less conflict around access, less conflict around transportation,” Wilhelmson said. “Wouldn’t it be lovely if we were able to build something rather than to just keep opposing.”
The initiative is funded by Georgia Strait Alliance members as well as by the Bullitt Foundation, Vancouver Foundation, McLean Foundation, RBC Blue Water Project, and Intact Foundation. Wilhelmson said that because there is such intense disagreement over increasing tanker traffic and the movement of ships carrying coal along the Fraser River, these issues are not part of the discussions.
“If this model works, we would love to move it to the Metro Vancouver level,” she said.
She added that this public consultation is especially necessary as climate change causes sea levels to rise and produces extreme weather events. She noted that the seawall will present a challenge because when a big storm arrives, it crashes onto its hard surface.
“The energy is suddenly dissipated, so there’s more destruction and more damage,” Wilhelmson added. “But when you have a soft surface, the energy of the wave dissipates and you have less damage.”
The Georgia Strait Alliance will host Water’s Edge Day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday (October 5) at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.
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