Stakeholders involved in Canada’s first-ever, watershed-scale, natural asset management project re-convened for their third in-person workshop at the end of February to continue moving the project forward that will determine how to work with nature to better measure, protect and enhance the region’s drinking water supply. 

In this workshop, the K’ómoks First Nation, Village of Cumberland, City of Courtenay, Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD), Town of Comox, a wide group of stakeholders, and MNAI reviewed the inventory of natural assets that currently exist, the state they’re in, how to place an economic value on the natural assets, and discussed potential modelling scenarios that will include effects of a changing climate.

For the CVRD, this project will help them understand the value the watershed is providing, which will help them manage it the way they currently manage their engineered infrastructure. “Our goal is to ensure a continued supply of clean, cool, regulatory-compliant drinking water for generations to come,” said Kris La Rose, Senior Manager of Water/Wastewater Services for the CVRD.  You can view his statement below.

The next step of the project is the implementation stage, which will start in the spring.