2003/04 – 2005/06 SERVICE PLAN Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management

A. Strategic Context

Vision

A vibrant economy supporting the social and environmental values of British Columbians.

Mission

To provide provincial leadership, through policies, planning and resource information to support sustainable economic development of the province's land, water and resources.

The Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management (MSRM) is the lead provincial agency responsible for strategic policies and plans concerning sustainable management of Crown land and water use, pricing, registration of private land titles and other tenures, strategic policies concerning property assessment and the provision of information concerning all natural resources. The ministry administers key legislation such as the Land Act, the Water Act and the Land Title Act.

Ministry overview

Services

The ministry provides four broad, interrelated types of services to clients:

• identifies opportunities for the sustainable economic development of natural resources and guides the priorities of other provincial agencies while maintaining key environmental values;
• develops resource-management plans, including land-use and resource-sector planning, that capitalize on economic development opportunities identified by the private sector, other agencies and the ministry;
• provides efficient and effective collection, storage, access to and analysis of registry, resource and geographic information for the management of natural resources; and
• develops strategic policies and legislation that are consistent with the government's strategic plan to guide the allocation and pricing of natural resources and related information.

The ministry is also committed to organizational excellence and provides corporate support services, including administrative, financial and human resource management, to its staff.

Clients

The ministry's principal clients include related provincial government ministries and corporations, federal and local governments, First Nations, resource businesses and non-profit organizations. The results of its land and resource planning and policies are largely implemented through other ministries and agencies such as Land and Water British Columbia Inc. (LWBC) and the Ministry of Forests. By contrast, the ministry's integrated registries, resource and geographic information and business services are used directly by both private and public clients.

The ministry's primary resource clients cover six major industry sectors: forestry; tourism; mining; oil, gas and energy extraction; agriculture and aquaculture. Together, these sectors directly account for approximately 17 per cent of British Columbia's GDP.¹

The ministry also impacts other industry sectors, although to a lesser degree. These include telecommunications, real estate and transportation. Together the ministry's primary and secondary clients directly account for 32 per cent of the provincial GDP.

As the BC Progress Board pointed out in its recent report on the economic state of rural British Columbia², the revitalization of land-based industries will be one of the critical determinants of the future of rural communities across the province. The Progress Board also noted that the government's action in such areas as providing secure access to natural resources through land and resource management plans, making timely decisions, ensuring a competitive regulatory process, providing consistent principles for aboriginal consultations and facilitating business-aboriginal partnerships will have a major influence on rural revitalization and achieving government growth targets. The ministry has a major role to play in implementing each of these policy initiatives.

Outcomes

As shown in Figure 1, the ministry's functions and services are aimed at delivering outcomes that support the government's strategic goals and achieving many of the reforms advocated by the BC Progress Board. The emphasis is on promoting economic development, revitalizing investment and creating jobs while maintaining key environmental values.

MSRM: From Government Vision to Future Reality for B.C. (Figure 1)

Almost all natural resources in British Columbia are owned by the Crown and largely developed by private interests. New investment opportunities help stimulate economic growth and job creation across British Columbia. Accelerated and expanded access to resources, reduced risks of resource-use conflicts and improved security of titles and tenures will help stimulate this investment. Increased economic opportunities will help First Nations achieve economic aspirations while reducing the economic impact of uncertainty related to aboriginal rights. This in turn supports overall community development, particularly in rural areas.

The ministry has a key role in delivering these outcomes through land and resource planning and identifying resource-based economic development opportunities in collaboration with natural resource ministries and agencies. These plans and identified opportunities assist other government agencies to provide tenures and other forms of resource access in their service to the public.

Clear, stable policies and legislation with an emphasis on strategic, performance-based regulation and on finding the balance between development and conservation will also help deliver investment and jobs while preserving key environmental values. The ministry plays a principal role in providing such strategic governance.

More streamlined provision of high-quality, science-based information to both public and private clients will help achieve all these outcomes, improve the identification of investment opportunities and lower costs to the private sector and government. The ministry has a lead role in providing such services.

Finally the effective and efficient use of staff and other resources by the ministry has a major impact on the quality of all outcomes, a point echoed in the government's strategic plan.

Governance principles for sustainable resource management

The ministry is committed to the following sustainability principles to guide its activities and delivery of public services. These principles are under discussion and are expected to be endorsed by the government in the spring of 2003.

Accountability — Setting performance-based standards and indicators and implementing mechanisms for compliance, auditing and reporting on progress towards sustainable resource management. An effective enforcement regime is a key part of accountability.

Certainty — Making timely and clear resource management decisions within a predictable and understandable regulatory framework.

Competitiveness — Ensuring that British Columbia remains internationally competitive by removing barriers to investment and promoting open trade.

Continual improvement — Learning from the past and looking for new and improved approaches to resource management.

Efficiency — Maximizing the net benefits arising from the allocation, development and use of natural resources.

Innovation — Encouraging innovative approaches, technologies and skills to ensure the sustainability of natural resources.

Integration — Ensuring that resource management decisions integrate economic, environmental and social considerations for the benefit of present and future generations.

Science-based decision-making — Making justifiable decisions informed by science-based information and risk assessment.

Shared responsibility — Encouraging co-operation among First Nations; federal, provincial and local governments; industry and non-governmental organizations in developing and implementing resource management policies.

Transparency — Establishing open and understandable decision-making processes including consulting with key interests prior to making decisions. Transparency also includes the public release of monitoring and compliance records, and tracking of sustainability indicators.

Organizational values

The ministry is committed to the following values regarding organization and staff behaviour:

• professional and high-quality client service;
• respect for the opinions and values of others, treating each other and those we serve with fairness, dignity and compassion;
• excellence as responsible stewards of the environment;
• a diverse workforce that is welcoming and inclusive;
• the highest standards of dedication, trust, cooperation, pride and courtesy;
• teamwork to support each other and work together across divisional and geographical boundaries;
• balancing personal and workplace expectations;
• communicating our expectations and decisions while being receptive to ideas regardless of origin; and
• leadership and responsive management in a changing environment.

Planning context

In pursuing its vision and outcomes, the ministry is confronted by a number of challenges and opportunities which form the planning context for the ministry over the next three years:

1. Better alignment with government's strategic plan with new focus on wealth creation — The ministry has re-aligned its policies and programs to play a more significant part in wealth creation for the citizens of British Columbia in accordance with the government's strategic plan (see Figure 1). There are opportunities for the ministry, working with other agencies/client teams, to accelerate access to Crown resources to support economic development. This will be done by actively seeking private sector partnerships, meaningful consultation with First Nations and streamlining decision-making processes. The result will be better targeting of the ministry's major activities, such as land-use planning, and specific initiatives in such areas as resource-based tourism and recreation. These activities will particularly benefit rural, resource-based communities.
2. Improved integration of economic, social and environmental goals into resource management decisions — The ministry was created to address the continuing challenge of striking the appropriate balance between the economic development of Crown land and the protection of environmental values. Some of the impetus for environmental stewardship is coming from resource-sector industries driven by market demands for independently certified products. The ministry's Sustainability Principles, presented above, will help address government's New Era commitment to adopt a scientifically-based, principled approach to environmental management that ensures sustainability, accountability and responsibility. The principles, along with new decision-support tools and accountability mechanisms, will help achieve a balance between economic and environmental interests.
3. Improved global competitiveness by ensuring access and security to Crown tenures — The resource sector continues to be buffeted by major demand changes, global competition, trade disputes and international scrutiny. British Columbia's reputation as a higher-risk jurisdiction for investment returns is only now being turned around. Ensuring access and security to Crown tenures is critical to attract and retain resource sector investment in British Columbia. Recent court decisions require the province to update its provincial policy for consultations with First Nations. This new policy will assist in promoting stability on the land base by providing a consistent approach for consulting First Nations. The ministry is also focusing and accelerating its resource planning activities which, in conjunction with LWBC tenuring activities, will improve security of tenures and resource access. Specific targets and performance measures are being developed to send a clear signal to the business community that British Columbia is a good place to invest in resource-based activities.
4. Providing new economic opportunities for First Nations — Assisting First Nations to achieve economic and social development goals, while reducing the economic impact of uncertainty related to aboriginal rights concerning natural resources, is an increasingly important part of the ministry's mandate. The ministry has the lead role in implementing agreements and partnerships with First Nations with respect to natural resource economic development. The Central Coast Strategy, for example, will facilitate economic opportunities for First Nations and contribute to revitalizing the central coastal economy³.
5. Stronger emphasis on client service and inter-agency cooperation — Ensuring effective cooperation and coordination with other ministries and agencies, particularly those concerned with natural resources, is one of the key challenges, as well as opportunities, for the ministry. Active consultation through the Deputy Minister's Council and the Deputy Minister's Committee on Natural Resources and Economy, coordination of strategies and performance measures in service plans and the development and implementation of an integrated sustainable resource management framework will help facilitate greater cooperation among provincial resource-management agencies. Initial steps have also been taken to harmonize the results-based provincial framework with federal and local levels of government to establish a single, integrated regulatory process to support economic opportunities.
6. Improved resource-information services — There is a growing public demand for accurate and timely resource information that is impartial, science-based and easily accessible from the electronic web. The demand varies widely between different types of users in terms of their location, the types of information required and the way it will be used. This has strong implications for the way the ministry should provide these services. The ministry is building partnerships with other agencies and the private sector to share resource information. New electronic web applications make it easier to provide information for land-use planning, resource investment and business decision-making.
7. Responding to human resources, workforce adjustment and workload challenges — The ministry faces increased demands for its products and services. Meeting these demands is challenging as a result of reductions in resources and the time it takes to develop revenue-generating partnerships or alternative service-delivery options. The ministry is implementing a human resources plan to improve leadership qualities across the ministry and to increase the capabilities of staff to achieve the ministry's mandate.