The GVRD, incorporated in 1967, is a voluntary federation of 20 municipalities and two electoral areas that make up the metropolitan area of Greater Vancouver. These communities have chosen to work together through the GVRD to deliver essential services more economically, efficiently and equitably at a regional level. It is one of 27 regional districts in British Columbia and, with more than 1.8 million residents, a little more than half the population of the province, is easily the largest.

The late Dan Campbell, minister of municipal affairs in the W.A.C. Bennett government of the early 1960s, and his deputy minister J. Everett Brown, pushed the concept of regional government. Campbell and Brown could be considered the fathers of regional government in B.C. The regional district concept was established by the provincial government in 1965; the first meeting of the GVRD's board of directors was July 12, 1967.

But, in a way, the GVRD's history goes back a lot farther than the creation of regional districts. It starts with water. On March 25, 1889 water flowed through a pipe that led from the Capilano River on the North Shore, snaked across the bottom of First Narrows beneath Burrard Inlet under 20 metres of water and ended in what is now downtown Vancouver on the inlet's south shore. That was the start of what would become, many years later, a regional water system. In that system (started by a private firm but sold in 1891 to the City of Vancouver) was the seed of the idea that became the Greater Vancouver Regional District; the idea that municipalities could provide their infrastructure services better and cheaper by working together.

Who are the members! Here's the roll call (with incorporation dates, area in square kilometres and 1996 population estimates):

Village of Anmore • December 7, 1987 (5.0) 900 Village of Belcarra • August 22, 1979 (12.49) 650 City of Burnaby • September 22, 1892 (106.7) 175,811 City of Coquitlam • July 25, 1892 (152.6) 100,946 District of Delta • November 10, 1879 (364.3) 96,870 Electoral Area A (University endowment lands) • Unincorporated (14.0) 5,503 Electoral Area C (Bowen Island, Barnston Island, Howe Sound and Indian Arm) • Unincorporated (919.1) 3,459 City of Langley • March 15, 1955 (10.2) 22,750 Township of Langley • April 26, 1873 (317.7) 80,708 Village of Lions Bay • January 2, 1971 (2.9) 1,414 District of Maple Ridge • September 12, 1874 (267.1) 59,830 City of New Westminster • July 16, 1860 (22.0) 47,016 City of North Vancouver • May 13, 1907 (12.7) 41,584 District of North Vancouver • August 10, 1891 (178.2) 81,848 District of Pitt Meadows • April 24, 1914 (50.0) 14,500 City of Port Coquitlam • March 7, 1913 (31.0) 41,845 City of Port Moody • March 7, 1913 (21.o) 20,459 City of Richmond • November 10, 1879 (168.1) 150,000 City of Surrey • November 10, 1879 (371.4) 294,000 City of Vancouver • April 6, 1886 (116.1) 521,048 District of West Vancouver • March 15, 1912 (98.9) 41,778 City of White Rock • April 15, 1957 (14.0) 17,603 Total 1995 population for the GVRD: 1,819,533.

The GVRD comprises five separate legal entities: the Greater Vancouver Regional District itself; the Greater Vancouver Water District (GVWD, incorp. 1926, became part of the GVRD in 1971); the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District (GVSDD, incorp. in 1956, a successor to the Vancouver and District Joint Sewerage and Drainage Board, which had been incorporated in 1914, and became part of the GVRD in 1971); the Greater Vancouver Regional Hospital District (GVRHD, incorp. 1967); and the Greater Vancouver Housing Corporation (GVHC, incorp. 1974). All operate under the umbrella of the GVRD, are in the same offices, have a common administration staff and, except for the housing corporation, virtually the same board of directors.

The GVRD's purpose is to preserve the quality of life in a magnificent region expected to be home to two million people by 2001, three million by 2021. The region's population increases by about 40,000 people annually. That's 110 new residents every day. Rapid growth of that kind calls for serious, long-range planning. And, beginning in the late 1980s, a new element was added: serious, long-range public input.

The GVRD is big business. In 1994 combined capital and operating expenditures and investment activities created a cash flow of more than $600 million. Some 77 per cent of the region's funding comes from member municipalities, 19 per cent from the provincial government, and the rest from licences, fees, etc. The district, in turn, actively seeks ways to generate income: the sale of steam generated from the incineration of garbage, for example, brought in $3.7 million in 1995; air permit fees produced $2.65 million; and parks rental operations brought in nearly $1 million. The current number of GVRD employees is approximately 1,000, the majority of whom work with the sewerage and water divisions. In general, the GVRD's services represent about 14 per cent of a property owner's tax bill. More than 90 per cent of that money is for capital costs for hospitals, water, sewerage and solid waste disposal programs. (The GVRD can't directly levy taxes on property owners.)

The GVRD board is made up of a number of directors (who are mayors and city or municipal councillors), who meet once a month to set policy and vote on decisions. Each community is allowed one vote for every 20,000 people within its boundaries, although no one director can hold more than five votes. As a result, communities with large populations have more than one director. Directors are selected by their respective municipalities, serve one-year terms, and may be re-appointed. In the two electoral areas, which are unincorporated and do not have councils, regional directors are elected by the voters in those areas to three-year terms. The board elects a chairperson and vice chairperson from among its members.

The Regional Growth Management Strategy On February 10, 1996 the provincial government recognized the GVRD's Liveable Region Strategic Plan as the official growth management strategy for the Greater Vancouver region. This recognition was the result of an innovative program of public involvement and intergovernmental cooperation in regional decision-making, and the legislative provisions of the provincial Growth Strategies Act.

Early in the regional planning process, the public rejected a business-as-usual approach to regional growth that would spread population throughout the Fraser Valley. They rejected it because it would put development pressure on farmland, increase the distance between jobs and housing, cost too much for public services and utilities, and result in worsening air pollution from an increasing dependence on automobile transportation. The plan prescribes a new approach that will conserve the critical resources of the region: land, air, water, energy and financial capital.

The Liveable Region Strategic Plan incorporates policies, growth targets and maps based upon four fundamental strategies: • protecting the green zone • building more complete communities • achieving a compact metropolitan region • increasing transportation choices

While each of these strategies is an important regional policy change, they are mutually supportive and interdependent.

The Liveable Region Strategic plan is intended to result in important intergovernmental partnerships to achieve success. Municipal plans will pursue the land use objectives. An agreement with the province will provide transportation investments in accordance with Transport 2021, a regional transportation strategy prepared in conjunction with the Liveable Region Strategic Plan and reflecting the Creating Our Future transportation priorities that place emphasis on walking, cycling and transit over the private automobile.

Water In the 1920s Dr. Ernest A. Cleveland, first commissioner of the water district, directed the formation of a water supply system that he envisioned could provide one million people with drinking water. The population at the time was less than a third of that. Dr. Cleveland got us off to a great start! He would be delighted with a visit today to the GVRD's operations centre in Burnaby's Lake City. There, technicians keep an eye on wall-sized screens showing an extraordinarily complex, multicolored array of information: at a glance, they can check water levels in the system's three primary "source lakes" and in its 22 service reservoirs, the status of valves at dozens of points along hundreds of kilometres of supply mains, more than 130 remote terminal units (RTUs), rates of water flow, and much more. (Many of our reservoirs, by the way, like the ones at Little Mountain and Central Park, are topped by tennis courts. Those thick concrete slabs covering the water make great court surfaces.) Four radio channels keep workers in the field in touch with the Lake City operations centre, but thanks to SCADA—Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition, the shorthand name for this complex electronic system—those RTUs allow technicians at the operations centre to open and close distant valves and fill and empty reservoirs with the click of a computer mouse.

Today the GVRD's 1.8 million residents and its businesses consume 400 billion litres of water a year, an average of 600 litres per person per day, enough to fill two-and-a-half bathtubs. As recently as 1990 we were using more than 700 litres a day. That drop, says the GVRD's water conservation office, is because of increasing public knowledge: communication, educational programs and a growing awareness (particularly since well-publicized lawn-sprinkling regulations began in 1992) that the supply of inexpensive water is not limitless. The water originates in three mountainous watersheds surrounding Capilano Lake and Seymour Lake on the North Shore and Coquitlam Lake, north of the city of Coquitlam. The water rights of the first two are owned by the GVRD itself while the water rights to Coquitlam Lake are owned by BC Hydro which sells some of its allotment of water to the GVRD each year to meet demands. Our abundant rain and the snow melt during spring and early summer usually provides an ample supply of water.

Oddly, only about ten per cent of the precipitation can be stored and used by GVRD residents. The rest spills over the tops of the dams or is diverted. Waterworkers like to see rain: it replenishes stocks quickly.

Turbidity in the water (generally during intense rainfall in late autumn) sometimes kicks up silt and may discolor the water in the source lakes. A rare event happened in late 1995 when both Capilano and Seymour Lakes simultaneously experienced turbidity because of landslides. At present there is screening of the water; filtration will start in 2003. Health officials assure the public the water is safe to use but complaints are heard. These turbidity incidents have happened since the formation of the water district, but now they're rarer, and so they're noticed. At this writing (early 1996) Capilano Lake's level had been lowered and outflow shut down to allow crews to repair the 1995 slide damage, investigate seepage at the eastern side of Cleveland Dam and inspect seismic upgrades to the dam itself that were made in 1992.

Water from the source lakes is soft and slightly acidic, and chlorine (one part per million) is added to disinfect it. (We've been adding chlorine to our water for more than 50 years.) The chlorine dissipates as the water gets farther downstream from the source, and so rechlorination stations will be added throughout the system to make sure the water meets water quality standards.

The water department office explains that it is primarily a gravity-feed system. Normally, pumping is not necessary. However, people above the lakes have to have their water pumped and there are pumps in most municipalities to handle peak flows in the summer. Besides the mountain storage lakes and dams, the distribution network includes more than 20 reservoirs, pump stations and more than 500 kilometres of supply mains. Point Roberts, in Washington State, is also supplied with water by the GVRD, White Rock, in contrast, uses its own independent ground water supply.

Planning for water supply looks decades ahead: it's possible, for example, that because of future population growth and a consequent increase in the amount of water storage needed, a higher Seymour Falls Dam may have to be constructed as early as 2005. Engineers have determined it will be cheaper to build a new higher dam farther downriver than to increase the height of the old one, so if a new dam is built it will submerge the original. The overall GVRD system, including the remaining BC Hydro allotment at Coquitlam Lake, could provide for up to 4.5 million people through provision of more storage facilities. The alternative is to purchase a larger supply from Coquitlam Lake.

The average daily per capita demand for water in the summer months is about 25 per cent higher than in the rest of the year. You may be surprised to learn that lawn watering accounts for about 25 per cent of all water use in the warmer months. That's why there's a such a focus on sprinkling of lawns in the GVRD's four-stage Water Shortage Response Plan: the first stage is just a reminder to be prudent; then, as water levels drop, lawn-watering restrictions go into effect from June 1 to September 30, requiring you to water only on designated days. The third stage limits watering to one day a week. If conditions become extreme, a total ban on watering your lawn is imposed.

We use a lot of water, and it costs a lot to use it. After more than seven years of study and an intensive public consultation program, the GVRD board voted June 29, 1994 to further safe- guard Greater Vancouver's drinking water supply. They approved the use of chlorine as a secondary disinfectant and approved further pilot testing of ozone and biological filtration. The decisions came after a lengthy public consultation program. More than 5,000 people participated through meetings, surveys, correspondence, a television forum and a speakers program. And 500,000 households received information about the Drinking Water Treatment Program and the consultation process through newspaper inserts. New water treatment facilities will include primary disinfection and pH adjustment facilities at the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam water sources, staged construction of filtration plants at the Seymour and Coquitlam sites, and secondary disinfection stations at GVRD distribution system reservoirs around the region. When construction is completed the region's drinking water will meet standards set by the Canadian Drinking Water Quality guidelines and British Columbia's new Safe Drinking Water Regulations. The GVRD's 1994 annual report predicts that long-range upgrading of the regional water and sewerage systems alone could cost in excess of $2 billion in the next 10 years. (More than $500 million of that will go for secondary treatment of sewage.)

Among projects to be considered by GVRD directors in 1996 is construction of a drinking water filtration plant in North Vancouver at an estimated cost of $150 million. This is a potential public/private partnership project.

Part of the construction budget includes the completion of seismic upgrading for Seymour Falls Dam. Cleveland Dam was upgraded in 1992 and Seymour Falls partially upgraded in 1995. Some of the money being spent on this project may soon start to flow the other way: there is a plan to generate hydro-electric power at Cleveland Dam. Selling it and using some of the off-season surplus water could provide a net annual return to the GVRD of about $1 million.

The GVRD's 5,600-hectare Seymour Demonstration Forest opened in the District of North Vancouver in 1987. It had been closed prior to 1987 because it was part of the region's watershed. The forest, which has been called an outdoor classroom, gets a quarter of a million visitors annually. Most of its trees are coniferous (western hemlock, western red cedar, Douglas fir, etc.) and tower upward in the lower part of a glacier-carved valley between big Lynn Headwaters Regional Park and Mount Seymour provincial Park. Here you'll see examples of integrated resource management such as timber harvesting, reforestation, fish and wildlife management ... and recreation, like cycling, hiking, rollerblading, picnicking and canoeing. (Much of the forest here was harvested more than 60 years ago, so you'll see what a reforested area can look like.) More than 100 species of animals and birds live within the valley and salmon and trout use the Seymour River to spawn. A visit to the volunteer-operated federally-funded hatchery here makes for an interesting and educational stop. Self-guided tours take you past interpretive panels on scenic loop trails, and you can see Seymour Falls Dam and Seymour Lake at the end of an 11-kilometre paved road closed to private vehicles. (A note: visiting the dam and returning is a long walk; a 22-kilometre round trip! At various times organized tours are allowed vehicular access up to the dam. Cyclists and rollerbladers are permitted on weekends.) Supervised summer tours of the normally off limits watershed areas are available and popular. The four-hour tours involve a walk in old growth forest, information on water quality, storage and conservation, fire protection and so on.

Sewerage and Drainage Every day nearly a billion litres of sewage and storm runoff flow through municipal sewer systems, then into GVRD trunk lines and next into five treatment plants. Wastewater treatment plants at Annacis Island, Iona Island, Lulu Island, Lions Gate and northwest Langley handle a volume equalling nearly 640 litres per person per day. There are more than 450 kilometres of trunk lines and interceptor sewers to move the waste along. The system is continually being improved, and handled imaginatively: at Iona Island, for example, a $40 million deep-sea outfall built in 1988 not only improved the quality of water at nearby Sturgeon Bank, it served as the foundation for a popular public promenade and cycle path extending four kilometres into Georgia Strait ... on top of the outfall pipes!

Iona Island's plant opened in 1963. At the time residents of Richmond were really unhappy with the decision to put it there: they wanted Vancouver to keep its own sewage. But, says the GVRD's 1992 annual report, "the tides were against it—Iona was the best location to get a good tidal flushing action." One of the major connectors to the plant is called the Highbury Tunnel, named for the west side street that runs above it. In some places the pipes are 100 metres beneath the surface.

Most wastewater generated in the Lower Mainland receives primary treatment to remove solids. But for treatment plants discharging into the Fraser River secondary treatment facilities are being built to further refine the discharge.

Improvements for secondary treatment at Annacis and Lulu Island Wastewater Treatment Plants are in progress, and scheduled to be complete at the end of 1998. It's estimated that the 360,000 tonnes of concrete to be used in the Annacis Island project would fill 15,000 trucks—enough to line the freeway bumper-to-bumper from Vancouver to Hope, 154 kilometres. This is the largest single local government capital project ($526 million) ever undertaken in Western Canada. The Lulu Island upgrade seems almost modest at $132 million.

The GVRD's wastewater treatment plants produce 200 tonnes of biosolids every day. But it isn't wasted: it's turned instead into a product called Nutrifor, increasingly in demand to restore depleted soils in British Columbia. The University of British Columbia cooperated with the GVRD in the development of the product. Trees fertilized by Nutrifor are healthy and grow faster, plants and grass grow vigorously. They recycled 100,000 tonnes of the stuff in 1995, and used it in many different places: the Barnet Highway right-of-way has been treated; so has the Cypress Bowl ski hill, Campbell Valley Regional Park, in reclamation of a mine site at Princeton, another at the Highland Valley Copper mine site in the Nicola Valley in the landfill areas in Langley and Coquitlam ... and poplar plantations in the Fraser Valley. Admire those poplars: you helped grow them!

The department also maintains natural water courses, like the Brunette River and Still Creek, classed as major drainage facilities.

Hospital Planning and Development The Greater Vancouver Regional District and the provincial ministry of health are jointly responsible for planning and financing construction and some equipment for hospitals within the Greater Vancouver area. The GVRD contributes 40 per cent of the cost of hospital construction for its 30 area hospitals, the district's single largest budgetary outlay. The province kicks in the other 60 per cent. The hospitals fund a proportion of their equipment needs through donations and their auxiliaries. Work goes on continuously: as this book was being prepared Surrey Memorial Hospital was undergoing dramatic expansion, and as this very article was being written an announcement was made that funds had been approved by the GVRHD for construction of a 70-bed extended-care unit at Zion Park Manor in Cloverdale. (As the average age of our population increases, hundreds of long-term-care beds are being added annually.)

Here's an example of how the regional approach works effectively: 16 hospitals in the GVRD had need to eliminate ozone depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from essential ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilizers. EtO had been used in local hospitals for 20 years for sterilizing instruments and supplies sensitive to heat and moisture. The problem: 88 per cent of the gaseous EtO mixture was CFCs, but--to lessen the impact of CFCs on the ozone layer--federal legislation in 1991 mandated their total elimination by 1996. Then the provincial government quickened the pace with legislation that banned them effective November 1, 1994. Working together, the hospitals and the GVRHD put out tenders for new CFC-free equipment. They had a surprise coming: one of the suppliers who responded to the tender offered a new and unfamiliar technology called "gas plasma." This technology does not use EtO or CFCs and is environmentally friendly. Clinical evaluation followed, and it was found that gas plasma did the same sterilizing job better, far faster and cheaper than EtO. Furthermore, Workers Compensation Board regulations were met. Other hospitals outside the District heard about the results, and asked to join in a group purchase of the new sterilizers. Savings in the first year: $3 million. Annual savings since: $1 million.

One small group within the GVRD starts being interested in you the moment you are born: in March 1993 the Birthing Centre Working Group arranged for a telephone survey of 900 women of childbearing age who lived within the GVRD. The purpose was two-fold: to measure the level of interest in using a birthing centre, and to determine the services preferred. Some 77 per cent of the women surveyed expressed interest in a more family-focused centre, rather than the traditional institutional models. The idea, to quote the BCWG, is to "strengthen and empower families around their own health, so that they become partners rather than passive participants in the health care system." There are as yet no birthing centres in B.C. although there have been recent developments toward the establishment of hospital-based family-centered maternity care models such as labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum rooms that incorporate a birth centre philosophy.

Housing Why is the Greater Vancouver Regional District involved in housing? During the 1970s the member municipalities recognized there was a desperate and growing shortage of affordable rental accommodation to meet the needs of people with lower incomes, sometimes called the "working poor." Some households at the time were paying more than 30 per cent of their gross income on shelter. The federal government created subsidized housing programs administered through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, but more needed to be done.

Municipally elected officials established the Greater Vancouver Housing Corporation (GVHC), a non-profit subsidiary of the GVRD. The Corporation increased the supply of housing stock throughout the Region by developing subsidized rental housing under the various federal programs available. To minimize a concentration of social housing in any one municipality a regional approach to increasing the rental supply was taken. That resulted in a more equitable distribution through-out the Region, and also eliminated the need for separate housing departments in each municipality.

The GVHC provides affordable rental housing for those not likely to be served adequately by the private sector. Alderwood Place in Richmond is a good example: the 48 homes there offer a mix of special needs, seniors and family housing, all with proximity to jobs and transportation services. These lower-income households are assured of rents not exceeding 30 per cent of their gross income. Richmond acquired the land and leases it to the GVHC. The Corporation pays its full share of taxes and utility charges to Richmond.

The GVHC's assets, which include more than 3,000 units, are assessed at approximately a quarter of a billion dollars.

Solid Waste There is a practical side to living in paradise. Someone has to take out the garbage. People in the Greater Vancouver Regional District currently generate about 2.5 million tonnes of solid waste a year. That works out to about 2.2 kilos of solid waste daily for each of us. Of that, about 24 per cent is residential, 37 per cent industrial, commercial and institutional, and 39 per cent generated by demolition, land clearing and construction materials. In descending order of content, solid waste is made up of organic material (kitchen and yard wastes) (32 per cent); paper (32); plastic (9); metal (5); textiles/leather (4); glass (3); and "other" (15 per cent). "Other" includes stuff like drinking boxes, disposable diapers, soil, rocks, furniture, appliances, and so on. Collection of waste from homes and businesses is done by the municipalities and private companies, which channel it into the GVRD's disposal system.

The Cache Creek landfill is a 48-hectare site next to the Trans Canada Highway in an industrial area south of the Village of Cache Creek, northwest of Kamloops. It's the first landfill in Western Canada to be fully designed and operated as an environmentally secure, state-of-the-art landfill facility. Waste from the Lower Mainland is screened—recyclables such as cardboard and ferrous metals are recycled, while hazardous or problem wastes are removed. The landfill was developed by the village and Wastech Services Ltd. for the GVRD and local residents. Since 1989 more than 300,000 tonnes of GVRD garbage has been hauled there.

We're using up disposal sites: six landfills have been closed in the region in the last 20 years. The landfill in Langley City was closed in 1976, that in Coquitlam in 1983, in North Vancouver and Richmond in 1986, and in Langley Township and Maple Ridge three years later. The Port Mann Landfill in Surrey is scheduled to close around 1997.

Solid waste facilities are continually upgraded. Examples of projects for 1995 included providing new emission monitoring control systems for the Burnaby incinerator and the design of a gas collection system at the Cache Creek Landfill.

More than 30 per cent of the region's waste is recycled. About 20 per cent of what's left is incinerated, and the remainder goes into landfill.

The provincial government requires that all regional districts prepare solid waste management plans showing how a 50 per cent per capita waste reduction goal will be met by the year 2000. It's an ambitious target. The GVRD's plan is to: • expand residential recycling to include additional materials • institute "user fee charges" for residential garbage collection, so that those who put out nothing pay nothing, while those who put out, say, 10 bags pay for each • put more emphasis on backyard composting • require larger industrial and commercial firms to prepare "waste audit" and waste reduction plans for their operations • ban from disposal some waste materials from the industrial and commercial sector like newsprint, cardboard and clean wood; companies will be required to recycle them • put continued pressure on senior governments for more control over packaging and for refundable bottle deposit programs.

As well, there are educational programs for the general public and the industrial, commercial and institutional sector. Residential education programs are developed jointly by the GVRD and member municipalities. And the GVRD monitors and regulates private sector demolition, land clearing and the disposal and recycling of construction waste.

Methane gas is collected from the former Coquitlam Landfill site. They're not just holding their noses, they're selling the gas. A private company collects it and transports it to a newsprint recycling plant in the same neighborhood, which uses it as a substitute energy supply. And about $4 million annually is earned from sale of steam from the GVRD's Burnaby Incinerator. Opened in 1988 at a cost just over $63 million, this is one of the most advanced municipal waste incinerators in North America; it handles about 20 per cent of all the solid waste disposed in the Lower Mainland: 240,000 tonnes of it every year. The District is developing a system for the control of nitrogen oxides emissions from the incinerator, and the intent is to have a functioning treatment system--well within standards mandated by the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks--installed by July 1996 at an estimated cost of $750,000. The incinerator also produces fly ash (fine particles of ash carried along with the waste gases produced during combustion), which may be treated on-line.

Regional Parks Regional parks were created to provide outdoor recreational and educational opportunities across the region that weren't available in municipalities, and to ensure that significant natural landscape features of the region were protected. All GVRD parks are open year-round, and are within easy distance of major urban areas. The parks are generally larger and in a more natural state than municipal parks, which tend to serve local neighborhoods and offer mainly indoor and outdoor sports and athletic activities. And the GVRD's parks serve a region-wide population. (Even beyond: the City of Abbotsford, while not a member of the GVRD, is a member of the parks function.)

In response to strong public support for acquiring and protecting regional wildlife and recreational lands, the GVRD created the Heritage Parkland Acquisition Fund in 1994. At the same time, in cooperation with its member municipalities, the province and other regional districts, GVRD coordinated the Lower Mainland Major Parks Plan. Through this plan, GVRD identified future parkland, conservation and outdoor recreation areas that needed to be acquired. When the province invited the GVRD to become a partner in a section of its Lower Mainland Nature Legacy Program in 1995, GVRD was prepared. Through the program, which nearly quadrupled the amount of parkland in the Lower Mainland, GVRD acquired 2,000 hectares of new land. It was financed by the province, GVRD, the federal ministry of the environment, several municipalities and private enterprise.

The Fraser River component of the nature legacy was particularly impressive. Lands were acquired at Surrey Bend, Douglas Island, Barnston Island, Don and Lion Islands, Brae Island and Colony Farm. New lands were added to Boundary Bay, Belcarra, Minnekhada, Derby Reach, Glen Valley and Iona Beach Regional Parks.

Combined with provincial wildlife reserves along the Fraser, there are now more than 80 kilometres of riverfront for residents to explore.

Today, there are 22 regional parks, covering a total of 11,200 hectares. Much of the new land awaits decisions on trails, facilities and services, restoration and habitat enhancement projects, and projects for disabled users. The busiest is 160-hectare Capilano River Regional Park, in both North Vancouver District and West Vancouver, with spectacular river canyon views and trails, footbridges and viewpoints. The largest is Lynn Headwaters, some 4,685 hectares of North Shore forest with extensive hiking opportunities. The smallest: 6.5 hectare Grant Narrows Regional Park in Pitt Meadows. With its canoe rentals and boat launching facilities, Grant Narrows is a good jumping-off point to explore Widgeon Creek and Widgeon Marsh. Discover the area's plentiful bird life, or admire dramatic mountain and river views as you stroll the nearby dykes to the Pitt Wildlife Management Area and Golden Ears Provincial Park.

Within these parks for all seasons are amenities for year-round recreation and nature interpretation. Facilities are in place for overnight group camping; walking, hiking and equestrian trails; canoeing, fishing, swimming, scuba diving, picnicking ... Boundary Bay Regional Park in Delta features a long, sandy shoreline cherished by swimmers and, when the tide is out, by crabbers! Along with providing for the future with fish hatcheries, wildlife habitat, trail development and community partnerships, the GVRD helps preserve and restore our heritage: in Campbell Valley Regional Park in Langley Township, for example, you'll find the restored 1924 one-room Lochiel Schoolhouse. In Coquitlam, Minnekhada features a rustic 1930s hunting lodge once occupied by vice-regal dignitaries.

Regional parks also offer outdoor special events and nature programs for all ages, and park interpretive specialists will custom design a nature program for any group.

Preserving wildlife habitat while expanding regional parks ranks high on residents' wish lists. This unparalleled blessing of teeming wildlife and serene nature all within easy reach of civic centres is truly remarkable, and the GVRD is committed to maintaining it. Regional park attendance topped five million visits in 1995.

Air Quality Public feedback is unmistakeable: we all want clean air.

In 1972 the provincial government delegated responsibility for air quality management to the GVRD, creating a regional focus for clean air initiatives. For more than 20 years the GVRD has been responsible for air quality monitoring and the regulation of air pollution sources. In 1994 the GVRD approved the Air Quality Management Plan, the first of its kind in Canada, "to reduce total emissions of sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, particulates, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds by the year 2000." (Fine particulates pose the greatest public health threat in the region.) The estimated net benefit of this program over the next 25 years is $2.3 billion, from reductions in human mortality and general health improvements.

The GVRD operates an air quality monitoring network, with 40 stations—half of which are continuous analyzers that send readings every 60 seconds to a central location. The daily air quality index is calculated from those readings, and reproduced in local daily newspapers and broadcasting outlets. The district also operates a mobile air quality monitoring unit (MAMU), used to collect air-quality data not currently covered by the permanent network. The unit is also able to conduct special studies within the region, and to respond to air quality emergencies. A regional by-law controls non-vehicle sources of air pollution and incorporates a polluter-pay system of fees to fund clean air programs. It's serious work, and it's wide-ranging, getting right down to efforts to reduce emissions from paint spray booths and your neighborhood dry cleaner.

There are more than one million motor vehicles in Greater Vancouver. The GVRD works with the provincial government to ensure British Columbians obtain the maximum air-quality benefit through tightened motor-vehicle emission standards for new vehicles. As well, GVRD works with member municipalities to utilize alternative fuels such as propane and natural gas in government vehicles. Since AirCare started in late 1992 (with the GVRD leading the initiative to begin it) there has been a 20-per-cent reduction of vehicle emissions every year. But it's a race to improve those figures even further because of increasing population and vehicle use.

An undeniable fact: nine out of ten GVRD residents blame serious air pollution on motor vehicles, yet the majority of us continue to drive to work alone five days a week instead of taking transit, carpooling, vanpooling, cycling or walking. The GVRD has programs to encourage residents to use transportation alternatives when possible.

Strategic Planning The GVRD's Strategic Planning department provides technical support for the region's environmental protection and growth management policy. Since 1990 the department has led in the preparation of several key regional policies adopted by the GVRD board of directors including the Liveable Region Strategic Plan which provides direction for growth management to the year 2021. The department works closely with member municipalities on the implemention of the plan, and support programs such as Transport 2021. Transport 2021 is a cooperative project involving the provincial ministry of transportation and highways, the ministry of small business, BC Transit, BC Ferries, and staff from the GVRD and its member municipalities. Transport 2021 recommends regional transportation policies, and a network of corridors for public transit and roads. The aim is to have the region's members shape their own transit programs to be consistent with the region's direction of development. The Strategic Planning department also provides local government services for the GVRD's two unincorporated electoral areas.

As well, it coordinates emergency response communications and the 911 telephone system. The 911 system links no fewer than 41 emergency service agencies (police, fire, ambulance, etc.) within the GVRD. In 1995 here's how the figures added up: • 110 calls an hour • 2,630 a day • 360,000 calls in 1995 • Calls expected, to top a million in 1996 • 911 can respond within 90 seconds in approximately 150languages.

Personnel and Labour Relations The Personnel and Labour Relations department negotiates some 65 collective agreements with unions representing about 14,000 employees of the GVRD and most of its member municipalities. The department also provides both collective bargaining and job evaluation services for most of the members and several related employers, including police and library boards, museums and recreation commissions. And the department offers consulting assistance to member municipalities in managing employment equity and workers' compensation issues.

Finance, Administration and Properties Financial planning, treasury, budgeting, purchasing and so on all fall under the FA and P department. And this is where the GVRD budgets get worked out. Here's how the 1996 budget was broken down: • sewerage $79.5 million • water $52.9 million • solid waste and recycling $54.8 million • hospital $116.6 million • parks $13.6 million •air quality $6.5 million • 911 telephone $4.2 million •strategic planning $2.8 million • other (general government, labor relations, municipal radio, electoral areas, Sasamat Fire Department, hospital planning) $6.5 million

• total $337.4 million

The separate Greater Vancouver Housing Commission budget is about $32 million.

Communications and Education This department works with other departments and member municipalities to plan and implement public awareness and education programs, media relations, community relations, public consultation, schools programs and so on. Communications and Education handles thousands of public enquiries each year, and produces and distributes publications, reports, videos and other information materials. Among its other functions is the production of the GVRD's annual reports. (The 1991 version, which marked the GVRD's 25th anniversary, is particularly rich in historical information and fascinating photographs, such as the construction of Cleveland Dam.)

The Creating our Future vision serves well as an eloquent conclusion to this article: "Greater Vancouver can become the first urban region in the world to combine in one place the things to which humanity aspires on a global basis: a place where human activities enhance rather than degrade the natural environment, where the quality of the built environment approaches that of the natural setting, where the diversity of origins and religions is a source of social strength rather than strife, where people control the destiny of their community, and where the basics of food, clothing, shelter, security and useful activity are accessible to all."