Budget 2004 -- Government of British Columbia.
         
Contents.
• Printer-friendly versionAdobe Acrobat Reader link page. (PDF)  
• Premier's Letter to the Minister  
• Message from the Minister  
• Accountability Statement  
• Ministry Overview  
• Resource Summary  
• Core Business Areas  
• Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Results  
• Appendix 1. Strategic Context  
• Appendix 2. Supplementary Performance Information  
• Appendix 3. Summary of Related Planning Processes  
• Appendix 4. Other Ministry Initiatives  

Other Links.
• Ministry of Finance Home  
• Budget 2004 Home  
 

Appendix 1. Strategic Context

Vision, Mission and Values

Vision

To be a responsive organization that is a model for leadership in promoting sound fiscal management and governance in an open and accountable public-sector environment.

Mission

To develop a sustainable fiscal plan, to prudently manage government finances, and to create a sound policy and regulatory framework that supports the creation of a strong and vibrant economy.

Values and Leadership Philosophy

Our Values are: Our Leadership Philosophy is to:
Accountability
  • be accessible and responsive to our client needs
  • measure and report on our performance at all levels
  • recognize achievement and learn from our mistakes
  • support a risk-based management system that encourages competency and performance based excellence
  • focus resources and analysis on those activities that present the greatest opportunities or pose the greatest risk to the government's fiscal and economic plan
Innovation
  • explore new partnerships and ideas about how we do our business
  • embrace technological change to capture new opportunities
  • make strategic investments in our people
Respect and Integrity
  • focus on our customers and clients
  • provide leadership and encourage teamwork
  • value diversity and differences of opinion
  • protect confidentiality of information
Trust and Honesty
  • keep our activities and outputs open and transparent
  • respond to feedback from the public and our clients
  • ensure clear and open communication

Planning Context

As the Ministry of Finance pursues its mandate over the next three years it faces an environment characterized by both risks and opportunities. A critical factor in the ministry's ability to achieve its goals and objectives is the state of the province's economy.

The BC economy grew 1.7 per cent in 2003, slower than the 2.7 per cent expected at the time of last year's budget, according to BC's independent economic forecast council. The Council now expects growth in BC's economy to pick up to 2.9 per cent in 2004. Further information on the BC outlook may be found in the Budget and Three-Year Fiscal Plan released with the budget.

Within this broader context the ministry is implementing an Enterprise-wide Risk Management program to identify and manage internal and external risks, and to realize new opportunities. Other strategies being undertaken in response to specific risks include:

Cross-Government Environment

Risk Mitigation
  • Economic fluctuations and unexpected shocks (I.e. SARS and BSE/Mad Cow) could affect forest revenues, personal and corporation income taxes and other revenues
  • Use prudent assumptions in the preparation of the budget
  • Demand for public services may increase
  • The addition of the schools, universities, colleges and hospitals (SUCH) sector into the government reporting entity may introduce forecasting errors
  • Globalization of economic and financial markets will increase competition for investment
  • Develop taxation policy which reinforces British Columbia's position as an attractive place to invest and create jobs
  • Maintain competitive tendering of treasury business functions to obtain optimal pricing and certainty of service delivery
  • Government's commitment to encourage alternative public service delivery, including public-private partnerships may impact internal resources
  • Ensure that the ministry has the necessary capacities and skill sets to effectively support public-private partnerships initiatives

Ministry Environment

Risk Mitigation
  • An aging workforce presents significant succession and recruitment challenges
  • Support staff professional and career development
  • Ensure current succession plans for key positions
  • Full implementation of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) may result in additional workloads within both core government and affected broader public sector organizations
  • Work closely with Auditor General and Accounting Policy Advisory Committee on accounting interpretations, and with program ministries to coordinate our joint efforts of data collection arising from the inclusion of the SUCH sector
  • Implementation of government's shared services system requires adjustment to roles and responsibilities of governance functions for financial and procurement services
  • Collaborate with Solutions BC to define roles and responsibilities
  • Interruption of critical ministry functions due to catastrophic loss or malicious software viruses/worms
  • Continue to update ministry business continuation plans and information management security
  • Investigate alternative processing sites for mission critical activities
  • Utilize multiple financial institutions for external banking and cash management systems
Opportunity Initiative
  • Technological innovations provide opportunities for greater productivity and efficiency
  • Systematic reviews of existing and future information management systems to realize economies of scale, reduced duplication and cost savings
  • Implement Enterprise-wide Risk Management (ERM) to identify key risks, optimize risk taking within the ministry and improve resource allocations
  • Establish a systematic ERM process to identify key risks at the ministry and program levels and integrate the results into the ministry's decision-making processes

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Changes from the Previous Service Plan

The Ministry of Finance has experienced minimal change in our mandate or key activities resulting in few revisions to the goals, objectives, strategies or performance measures outlined in our previous service plan. However, in several instances the ministry has updated elements of the plan to better reflect new responsibilities and initiatives or to clarify the standards against which we will be measured. These changes include:

  • The performance measures included in last year's plan under the 'Effective cash and debt management' objective have been moved to the first objective addressing a balanced budget in 2004/05. In their place, three new performance measures have been added that better reflect the ministry's activities in the areas of cash and debt management.
  • The two performance measures associated with effective management of public sector labour relations have been revised. The measure exploring compensation cost changes no longer excludes previously existing contracts. This change more accurately reflects actual budgetary requirements in each fiscal year and includes the costs of settlements negotiated in other years, but implemented in the reporting year. Measurement of the days lost due to labour disruption in the BC Public Sector was also updated to reflect the relative size of the public service and utilize a rolling three-year average to reduce spikes associated with the bargaining cycle.
  • The objective addressing government-wide responsibility and accountability frameworks has been revised to better reflect both the ministry's role in approving the frameworks and new responsibilities for procurement management. The related performance measure has also been revised to investigate stakeholder satisfaction with the financial and procurement management policy frameworks.
  • The fourth goal related to financial planning and reporting and its associated objective of transparency and accountability for expenditures have been revised to eliminate references to "performance". This change reflects the ministry's shift away from managing the service planning and reporting process for government as a whole given the substantial internal capacity and expertise that has developed in the provincial public sector.
  • A new strategy and related performance measure related to the implementation of Enterprise-wide Risk Management within the ministry have been added.
  • The objective of compliance with statutory reporting and budgeting requirements and with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles now includes a reference to "in all material respects" in order to more accurately reflect accounting principles.
  • The strategy and performance measure seeking alignment of Estimates, Budgets and core business areas have been discontinued given the ministry's successful conclusion of the initiative in 2003/04 .

Inclusion of the above material reflects the ministry's commitment that the service plan continues to accurately reflect our activities and intended results. Efforts have also been made to ensure that the plan and particularly its measures and targets remain consistent in order to provide British Columbians with a basis for evaluating our performance over time.

Consistency with Government Strategic Plan

Each Ministry of Finance goal and objective is consistent with and directly contributes to the achievement of the Government Strategic Plan goal of a "strong and vibrant provincial economy". The ministry's role in contributing to the success of the Government Strategic Plan is illustrated below.

Link. Consistency with Government Strategic Plan
Link.

 

  
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