Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Results

During the next three years, ministry resources will be focused on achieving goals and objectives consistent with the ministry's vision of "a competitive and profitable industry that is environmentally and socially sustainable and provides safe, high-quality food for consumers and export markets". They also reflect the ministry's commitment to support industry self-reliance, address barriers that affect market access and the investment climate, and work in partnership with other provincial agencies, levels of government and the industry.

Results, key strategies and performance measures are also identified. Development and refinement of performance measures is ongoing, particularly of appropriate outcome indicators, which measure the impact a program has on its clients or on society.

Factors outside the ministry's control can influence ultimate outcomes so the performance targets shown specifically for the goals are broad indicators that generally reflect the level of success of ministry programs and policies. Although the ministry cannot be totally accountable for those broad measures, it will continue to monitor them in order to make adjustments to programs. Also, since outcomes tend to be the result of longer-term actions, it is important for analysis to take place over several years.

The performance targets shown next to objectives and their strategies in this plan are generally more immediate outcome or output measures over which the ministry has more control and accountability. These are the focus of this plan, and will be reported in the annual report published by the ministry after each fiscal year.

This high-level plan is supported by branch-level business plans that provide additional detail and describe the ministry's anticipated activities, programs or initiatives over the next three years and how they support the ministry's service plan. All goals, and most objectives, strategies and performance measures of the previous service plan are retained in this plan. Significant changes have been identified as appropriate.

		Goal 1: Agriculture, food and fisheries sectors that are competitive in a global economy, and provide ecnomic benefits and stability to British Columbia.

		Goal 2: Optimum benefits to British Columbia from fisheries and aquaculture.

		Goal 3: Safe, high-quality B.C. products from sustainable agri-food systems.

		Goal 4: Environmentally sustainable development of the agriculture, food and fisheries sectors.

		Goal 5: Reduced impact of income declines for farmers in agricultural sectors affected by disasters.

		Goal 6: Effective policy framework and administrative and financial systems in place that facilitate the ministry's achievement of its service plan objectives and ensures the ministry is well positioned for the future.