Appendix 3. Summary of Related Planning Processes

Human Resource Management Plan

To meet the goal of being effective forest stewards the Forest Service will continue to implement its Human Resources (HR) Strategy.

Although the ministry's workforce adjustment will be complete at March 31, 2004, the ministry remains in a period of transition while it continues to define its business and organizational structures. This transition also comes at a time when a significant portion of ministry staff will begin to be eligible for retirement. Managing the continued transition requires strong leadership and commitment to managing our human capital.

Creating capacity — looking at both the present and the future employee base continues to be key to our human resources sustainability. This will necessitate a strong emphasis on leadership development, employee learning and development, and performance management, as well as utilizing the diversity of our employees to maximize productivity and effective program delivery.

As the Forest Service continues to redefine its business we will focus on key core competencies and skill-sets that will be required by our employees to move the organization forward. The primary human resources focus over the next years will be to implement a strong leadership development plan within the ministry and look at succession and workforce planning issues, as well as, identify strategies to become known as a continually learning organization.

Information Resource Management Plan

During late 2003/04, more than fifty major computer applications that currently support ministry operations will be replaced with a new suite of applications that conform better to the ministry's current business needs.

The 2004/05 year will be a year of consolidation for these applications, adding further functionality to meet changing business needs. Other complementary projects will be started, subject to funding availability. Many of these new applications have electronic commerce capability, and thus have the potential to significantly reduce the cost of doing business, both for the ministry and for the forest industry. Some of these new applications will allow users access to linked map and tabular data on the same computer screen. This has been a major goal for more than a decade, and will only be achieved with the help of the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, which is responsible for the provincial spatial data warehouse.

While this major development effort has been ongoing, the ministry has adopted centralized delivery of computer infrastructure and services. A number of ministry staff were previously transferred to the Common Infrastructure Technology Services (CITS) Branch of the Ministry of Management Services, and new administrative arrangements are being developed. The ministry depends heavily on CITS for vital information technology services. These new arrangements must accommodate the significant reduction in size and number of the ministry's distributed offices. Service level agreements and funding requirements will be negotiated.

As the ministry adopts new ways of doing business, principally results-based forest management practices, there will be a need to train a large number of staff and forest industry participants. This training will be delivered and tracked electronically, thus reducing costs significantly while demonstrably improving effectiveness.

A significant effort will continue to clean up backlogged records from closed and vacated offices to get them to final disposition. The ministry will implement full capability for electronic document and records management in headquarters, with planning continuing for implementation the following year in the rest of the ministry. This will be preceded and complemented by training and reinforcement of proper business practices on managing ministry information, to ensure efficient and effective business practices including the increased ability to quickly address freedom of information and litigation requests.

Implementation of the Ministry's new Performance Management application, MAX, was initiated in 2003/04. In 2004/05, as it reaches full implementation, MAX will add capacity for planning, budgeting and managing performance measures and financial expenditures corporately, with enhanced reporting.

Risk Management Plan

The Ministry of Forests will be developing a more formal risk management framework during 2004/05.

Risk management principles have been operational in the ministry for many years with forest fire prevention and detection plans, revenue functions and more recently in the Provincial Bark Beetle Management Strategy. In addition, the Ministry's Compliance and Enforcement program has used risk management inspection planning for several years to ensure that the highest risk sites and operators receive priority inspections.

Significant risks identified to achieving the objectives, strategies and performance measures in the 2004/05 – 2006/07 Service Plan include:

• Drought conditions (the worst on record) contributing to the fire situation in summer 2003 may continue in 2004/05.
• It may take longer than the 2-year transition from the Forest Practices Code to the Forest and Range Practices Act for Forest Stewardship Plans to be adequately prepared by licensees and approved by MOF staff.
• A $25 M decrease to the FI funding and competing pressures on the land-base Investment program funding may impact work by licensees on the land base.
• The MOF has an obligation to consult with First Nations and to accommodate. Where accommodation can not be achieved, delays in forest management decisions and uncertainty for industry may result.
• The bark beetle epidemic continues to damage and kill significant amounts of timber. Capacity to harvest and manufacture beetle killed timber is largely committed while supplies of this timber continue to expand. BC Timber Sales revenue returns are expected to drop as buyers are selective in bidding.
• Capacity to have the right people with the right skills for new strategies has been limited and will be difficult to increase due to education and employment limitations.