City of Courtenay’s Derek Richmond is the new CAVI Chair

Announcement made at the 'Forum within the State of the Island Summit'

Derek Richmond, Manager of Engineering with the City of Courtenay, has succeeded John Finnie as Chair of CAVI-Convening forAction on Vancouver Island. Launched in September 2006, CAVI is in effect a multi-agency support network undertaking to build and educate on practices and initiatives that are already underway on Vancouver Island.

“Back in 2008, we knew that the key to moving forward was thinking beyond our boundaries, and making a real commitment to collaboration. At one of our Learning Lunch seminars, we invited the Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) for the four Comox Valley local governments to say a few words about the 4Cs – that is, communicate, cooperate, coordinate and collaborate. We posted a video on YouTube that captured the moment,” Derek Richmond told the ‘Forum within the Summit’ audience. The event was hosted by the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance (VIEA).

“Fast forward to October 2011…we submitted a Joint Report to the four CAOs. The report summarized our achievements to date in holding annual Learning Lunch series. It also sought a commitment to a regional approach to rainwater management. Our focus is on action so that we can implement strategies and practices at a watershed scale,” concluded Derek Richmond.

Forum Within the Summit: The 2011 State of the Island Economic Summit in Nanaimo included four pre-Summit sessions on the afternoon of October 18. One of these was hosted by CAVI in association with the VIEA Sustainability Task Force.

Branded as a "Forum within the Summit", the focus of this session was on solutions to the "Infrastructure liability" challenge confronting all local governments. The Forum theme was: The Public Infrastructure Dilemma - How Will We Sustain Our Water, Our Streets and Ourselves? The Forum attracted close to 80 attendees. The Forum was an opportunity to celebrate the collaboration that is happening in the Comox Valley

Get It Right At the Front-End: In 2008, the four local governments in the Comox Valley agreed to embark on a journey as a regional team. As a result, the Comox Valley is the provincial pilot for demonstrating the benefits of a 'regional team approach' to establish expectations and achieve consistency at the front counter.

 

"Our definition is that the 'regional team' in its fullest sense encompasses local government, the Province, the development community and the stewardship, agricultural and academic sectors," states John Finnie, CAVI immediate Past-Chair. "An initiative by the Comox Valley team in 2010 was a Developers Dialogue. This opened lines of communication to the local development community."

"We know...and you know....that if we do things right at the front-end, the end result will be a lot better, and everyone will wind up saving time and money. The end product that you have will be an added-value product," Derek Richmond said to those in attendance.

E-Blast #2011-57

November 1, 2011