WC131 JulyAugust 2023 - Magazine - Page 14
Watershed Security Fund is a potential pathway to create an
integrated, regional watershed management plan, if the province
takes progressive action.
Better incentives to integrate nature in co-governance could be
driven by the National Adaptation Strategy, however, as noted in
NAI’s response letter to the Strategy’s first draft, the Strategy and
Plan’s actions are quite general, and focused on discrete areas of
Departmental programming. This reinforces the fragmentation
of governance, but the Federal Government may still take the
opportunity to challenge these patchwork policies directly.
Financial barriers are also preventing local governments’ ability
to account for nature as part of their decision-making. The Pub-
2023 Water Canada Award Winner
Grindstone Creek won the Water Canada Award for
Stormwater. See page 20 for more details.
lic Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) currently does
not allow public entities to include natural assets
on their financial statements, making it a hurdle to
compare the value of maintaining natural infrastructure against other actions or development. NAI, the Intact
Centre on Climate Change, and partners are working to have
this rule removed and provide PSAB with guidance on nature
accounting in public sectors.
Natural asset management is a scalable way that local governments can mitigate central climate issues, from costly floods and
droughts to cleaner water sources, and the most effective actions
are those that recognize watersheds as a whole. None of these
should be seen as the barrier to NBS; each one is simply a barrier
caused by trying to divide nature so it fits into our structures
instead of the other way around. However, without addressing
these barriers, natural asset management will not work.
CELEBRATING BROWNFIELD CHAMPIONS
November 24, 2023
The Delta, Toronto
Submit your Nominations by September 18
powered by
brownieawards.ca
14
WATER C AN ADA • JULY/AUGUS T 2023
NAI
”B.C.’s Watershed Security Fund is a potential pathway to
create an integrated, regional watershed management
plan, if the province takes progressive action.”
