This essay attempts to determine how university archives in British Columbia have developed from their origins as collections of historical documents within university libraries, and whether they exemplify the larger trend of archival development evident in Canada. An examination of the history of the National Archives of Canada provides a model of developmental stages and key elements necessary for a modern archival programme. In addition it exemplifies the Canadian tradition of “total archives”. Individual case studies explore the evolution of British Columbia’s three university archives, in the light of this Canadian tradition. Archival programmes located within the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University are examined, in order to determine how they were conceived, advanced and sustained. An examination of the administrative records of the three university archives including annual reports, correspondence, policies and committee minutes presents a historical overview of their growth and development. Following decades of progress, the emerging picture is one of an incomplete process with each institution having attained a different level of development. The conclusion compares and contrasts the three institutions and assesses their progress in the broader national context of Canadian university archives generally. The state of university archives in British Columbia mirrors that of their national counterparts and the emerging picture is one of an evolution still incomplete.

This thesis explores the dynamics and complexities of the press-politician relationship in the context of the British Columbia Legislature and Press Gallery. The relationship is examined from theoretical, historical/institutional, practical, and political perspectives. The evidence presented suggests that although the press-politician relationship is necessarily symbiotic, it is also characterized by conflict and attempts by both press and politicians to achieve independence of each other. As such, the relationship is most accurately described as one of "adversarial symbiosis." The sources of strain and the constructive elements of the relationship work in tandem to move the province closer to the ideals of legislative democracy as the relationship evolves over time. Provincial press galleries are notoriously under-documented, both through independent research and through their own administration. To date, there has not been a comprehensive study of the British Columbia Press Gallery as an institution of the Legislature. As a result, this thesis relies heavily on oral history, provided through semi-structured interviews with current and former members of the Press Gallery, and published biographies of B.C. journalists and politicians. This thesis was also informed by a review of the existing literature on the Canadian, Australian and British Parliamentary Press Galleries, archival research at the B.C. Legislative Library and Press Gallery offices and personal observation and analysis afforded by the author's six-month Legislative Internship in the B.C. Legislature.

Between 1985 and 1995, government agencies and interest groups interacted in a recurring cycle of moratoria and reviews in attempts to resolve a wide variety of environmental, economic and social concerns about salmon farming while making policies to manage the development of the new industry in British Columbia. Using policy community theory, this thesis analyzes how the community members developed the salmon farming policy framework. Then, drawing on the recommendations that were already advanced by aquaculture planners from the early 1980s, the thesis evaluates the policy framework that exists today. Depending upon their power resources and their position within the policy community, the members of the community used different methods to influence the policy process. The members of the sub-government maintained the status quo by using methods such as restricting the access for interest groups to the policy process and limiting the flow of information to the attentive public. The members of the attentive public increased their power by forming coalitions and putting forward a common policy statement to the public and government. Maintaining the status quo became difficult when the New Democratic Party (NDP) government came to power. In revising provincial environmental policies , the NDP changed the relative influence of the government agencies in the sub government. These changes increased conflict among agencies which the government addressed by undertaking an environmental assessment and a public policy review. The B.C. salmon farming policy community is identified as a pressure pluralist community which emerges when jurisdictional responsibility is fragmented among a number of agencies and no mediating mechanism exists to bring together the members of the community. As a result , the community tends to make short term policy and functions without a long term strategy. The thesis concludes with six recommendations designed to increase the access and input of all those who want to participate in the policy process, to address the diversity of issues raised within the policy community, to insure social accountability when interest groups implement policy , and to fill the gaps in the existing policy framework.

A fast response chemiluminescent ozone sonde originally intended for use as a balloon borne instrument, was deployed on a single engine light aircraft to determine mean ozone concentrations in the boundary layer downwind of a major urban centre. Vancouver is a coastal city at the mouth of a major river delta and valley walled in by mountains to the north and east. Hence, the pollutant distribution during anti-cyclonic conditions is influenced by the thermally induced flows of the sea/land breeze and mountain/valley wind systems. This study focused on ozone concentration in a steep walled, glacial valley near the city, where ozone concentrations had not been previously monitored but were suspected to be high. Measurements confirmed this hypothesis and the mass budget of ozone for the valley was calculated for a period shortly after sunrise when the rate of boundary layer growth was at its maximum. The high levels of ozone found in the valley were partly attributed to residual layer storage of ozone above the nocturnal stable layer. This overnight storage of ozone during sustained anti-cyclonic conditions suggests that the Pitt River valley and possibly other tributary valleys represent an important net sink for ozone emanating from precursor sources in the Lower Fraser Valley.

Watershed restoration has in recent years received a great deal of attention from policy makers and other stakeholders in British Columbia. Two hundred twenty seven watershed restoration projects were approved for funding by Forest Renewal British Columbia during the 1995-1996 fiscal year, with an approved budget of $22.2 million dollars. Despite this attention, there is no clear agreement on what watershed restoration is or how it should be evaluated. There is a pressing need for a watershed restoration evaluation process to be developed and implemented at the program level. The purpose of this research is to develop an evaluative framework for watershed restoration initiatives generally, and apply it to the Squamish River Watershed Restoration Project as a means of testing and improving the framework. In the process an evaluation of the Squamish River Watershed Restoration Project is conducted. The methods used to conduct this research included: (1) a comprehensive review of project reports, proposals and other relevant literature, (2) the design and application of a structured evaluative framework and (3) informational interviews with individuals representing legitimate interests in the case study. The evaluative framework appeared to be successful at measuring the performance of the case study, and may have great potential as a program evaluation tool. Application of this evaluative framework to other watershed restoration initiatives may help advance the goals of ecological restoration and sustainable development through investment in natural capital. It is recommended that future initiatives could benefit by: • Utilizing an ecosystem approach to natural resource management, one that emphasizes investment in natural capital, the establishment and maintenance of self sustaining social and ecological systems. • Utilizing a commonly recognized definition of ecological restoration, as promoting: (1) ecologically and socially desirable ecosystem values; (2) identifies functional and structural elements essential to self-sustaining systems; (3) facilitation of ecosystem recovery. • Applying the principles of decision analysis, and the use of the fundamental objectives that have been developed as a part of this work throughout the different phases of the project. • Incorporating the principles and practice of Adaptive Management. • Incorporating a collaborative approach to problem solving and, decision making when appropriate.

Most common law and civil law jurisdictions have laws in place to provide a safety net so that those who are unfairly disinherited will be able to claim a share in a deceased's estate. Since 1920, British Columbia has been one of those jurisdictions in which a testator's distribution scheme may be varied at the discretion of the Court. However, the absence of a stated purpose of the legislation, a broad judicial discretion to determine what is adequate provision for a spouse and children and the failure of the Supreme Court of Canada in Tataryn v. Tataryn to bring certainty and predictability to the law point to a need for reform. The goal of this thesis is to complete the sentence "the purpose of legislation restricting testamentary freedom is . . . . " and to make recommendations for legislative change to accomplish this purpose. An overview of the law in British Columbia today and the arguments for reform will be outlined in chapters 1, 2 and 3. Chapters 4 through 8 will examine a number of topics to extract policies which might assist in the formulation of a dependant's relief statute's purpose. Historical concepts, family, intestacy and wrongful death legislation as expressions of values will be reviewed. From the doctrine of unjust enrichment, a cause of action independent of a statute, a contract or a tort, but now widely used in claims between family members, will be extracted principles which recognize compensation for the contribution of services and money between family members. Empirical studies about testators' intentions, family and other private relations will be noted in chapter 9. Lastly, chapter 10 will make a number of recommendations for reform. These include: (a) A statement of the statute's purpose. Persons who have lived together in a relationship of some permanence with financial and emotional interdependence should share equally the assets acquired during their time together and the survivor's need for support should be recognized. Children's support needs should also be met but the testamentary autonomy of persons should be subject only to these two objectives. (b) The broadening of categories of claimants to include cohabitants and stepchildren with the introduction of age and dependency criteria for the latter. (c) Criteria to be used in making reasonable financial provision for spouses and children. (d) A priorities scheme. (e) The right to waive the statutory rights by agreement. No attempt is made to provide recommendations for all of the issues that would arise under a new statute.

The theme of this exploration is the issue of habitability. In its most basic sense, dwilling seems to be defined by constructions which carry social values of privacy. At the same time, the many moves of privacying are understood to be relative to public worlds--to the point that ambiguities persist: the fact that pivate percetions can be exchanged for public ones in the very same spaces. Uncovering these relative and, at times, opposite realities means that a great deal of importance is paid to thresholds. By this, I mean the truns in plan, the drops in section, etc. which relate a sequence of unfolding via devices which stimulate subtleties in mood and awareness. Issues of public to private (and its opposite, simultaneous inversion) are investigated using the concept of nested scales . Here, analogous moods shared by movements through scale (eg. street to courtyard; hall to room) are investigated for their synergy. Parallel to these social perceptions are investigations which focus on the elemental specifics of dwellings. What value can hearths be to dwelling? What is a modern control centre for the household? What are the requirements for the bathing ritual? These types of questions permeate the general evalutaion of dwelling design. Sutides which detail abstracted, idealised elements help to inform the larger project-like a kit of parts, they serve as cornerstones which seed and temper the sequential experience of the dwelling. Ultimately, this abstraction absolves the need to make "rooms" but rather to compose dwellings via the integration of elements filtered through public/private dialogues, sequence, and continuity. The site is bounded by 15th and 16th avenues to the North and South and by Arbutus St. and the CPR right of way to the west and east, respectively. Its dimenstions are 270 feet in length and 16 feet and its narrowest, 44 feet and its widest. The site acts as catalyst for the whole project of fitting in thresholds and elements. Like a sandwich, the site compresses thin, discrete, and identifiable componete parts into a whole building. The very narrowness of the site forces a dialogue to surface between the tremendous, double-sided exposure of the building—its public condition, and the construction of nesting scales of prospect and refuge.

This study examined the informal learning strategies of individuals who were among the first to belong to the original small group of British Columbian recreational divers. These individuals included breath-hold divers, users of Oxygen Re-breathers, and users of Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (scuba). Through the narratives provided by the divers themselves and other corroborative evidence, this qualitative investigation looked at who the divers were and how they approached learning to dive in this context of informal learning: that is, how they learned about and acquired the skills and knowledge needed for diving, and the changes in attitude and aspirations they acquired which stemmed from those learning activities.

In order to deal with the current unsustainable pattern of growth and development, the City of Vancouver is advocating intensification as a means for developing more complete communities. Promoting this strategy to the public may, however be problematic when there is little or no empirical evidence documenting the outcome or experience of intensification. To better understand the issues, challenges and opportunities associated with using intensification to create complete communities, the City of Vancouver's experience with this strategy was analysed, across a range of planning initiatives within which intensification policies were deployed. Through the use of interviews and a case study comprising an analysis of several City policies and initiatives, the benefits, costs, and barriers of intensification were documented. In total 18 people were interviewed which included City Staff, councillors, developers, and members of planning organizations. This process revealed what the City has been able to achieve through intensification, the lessons they have learned and the direction this strategy must take in the near future in order to create more complete communities. To date, the City has had the most success with intensification when it has been applied to existing multi-family neighbourhoods or to the redevelopment of industrial lands. As a result, the City has been able to create new neighbourhoods that have many of the characteristics of a complete community. However, when this same process is taken to existing single family neighbourhoods, it is met with opposition as a result of the public's resistance to change and the conflicting views regarding intensified urban living. Despite this failure, Vancouver's experience has provided a number of valuable lessons regarding how intensification can be used to create more complete communities. For example, there are a number of conditions that must exist in order for intensification to be promoted, which relate to the planning, market, and political environment of an area. Once these conditions are in place then, strategies should be developed to ensure that intensification is designed to be responsive to a community's needs. Finally, Vancouver's experience with this strategy reveals that the best way to understand what a community needs and what tradeoffs they are willing to make in order to create more complete communities is through a political process that involves a consensus approach to planning and public discussion. The findings of this thesis indicate that the success of future intensification initiatives lies in the City's ability of making intensified urban living fashionable. To do this it will be imperative to establish a common understanding of its limits and benefits by learning from past experiences and by building on the successful intensification initiatives that have occurred. Once this is done, the City can then use the successful examples of intensification to educate the public about how it can be used to create complete communities.

The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate the way in which feminist-based organizations - specifically women's centres - have sought to fulfill the unmet social needs of women and children living throughout British Columbia. This thesis achieves this end through a number of different means. A literature review provides background on feminist planning and an overview of the history of the women's movement in Canada. An examination of B.C. women's centres, which includes a close look at the similar and unique services offered, demonstrates the positive contributions made by centres. A case study, which thoroughly reviews the history of one specific centre (the North Shore Women's Centre), shows how women's centres evolve over time in order to meet the changing needs of the women in their communities. An analysis explores the opportunities and constraints that the members of women's centres have faced in trying to carry out their various activities. This thesis has been based on, and has utilized, the goals and methodologies created by feminist planners. In doing so, it takes women's needs, interests, and experiences into account, and aims to make a contribution to knowledge that women can use to improve their lives