Strategic Context

Vision, Mission and Values

Vision

British Columbians enjoy full social and economic participation in safe, healthy communities.

Mission

Promote and sustain economically viable communities that provide a healthy and safe place for British Columbians to live and work.

Values

The ministry is guided by the following values in conducting its work:

Collaboration — promoting team work, and building relationships and partnerships of mutual trust, confidence and respect.

Professionalism and Integrity — conducting respectful, honest and ethical behavior in all its communications and actions.

Responsiveness — providing high levels of service to ministry clients and the public in a timely and effective manner that demonstrates the ministry's commitment to service.

Accountability — providing services efficiently, implementing sound financial management and being accountable to government and the public for the results identified in its Service Plan.

Innovation and Creativity —championing a culture of learning, innovation and creativity within all levels of the organization.

Planning Context and Key Strategic Issues

The Ministry of Community Services helps to create strong, healthy, safe British Columbia communities through its work in two core business areas: local government and seniors', women's and community services.

In Canada, responsibility for local matters is assigned to the provinces under the Constitution. All provinces discharge this responsibility by providing a legislative framework within which local governments operate. British Columbia's implementation of the Community Charter has created the most enabling framework for local governments in Canada. The Charter balances broader local government powers with increased accountability to British Columbians.

In British Columbia, local governments consist of 156 municipalities and 27 regional districts, which collectively serve diverse communities whose populations range from under 250 in the Village of Silverton to over two million in the Greater Vancouver Regional District.² Local governments provide a wide range of services to citizens, including fire protection, policing, land-use planning, parks, recreation, local streets, water, sewer as well as garbage collection and disposal. Local governments also support important objectives such as literacy, health and wellness, environmental sustainability and economic opportunity for British Columbians. Through the Community Charter and the Local Government Act, the Local Government Department works to ensure local governments have the necessary tools to provide these services effectively and remain accountable to their citizens.

Challenges and opportunities facing British Columbian communities include:

• Many rural communities have traditionally depended on natural resource industries, which have been dramatically impacted in recent years by trade issues such as the ongoing softwood lumber dispute, the mountain pine beetle infestation, and the challenges of resource renewal. The ministry will work with resource ministries and other social ministries to mitigate the socio-economic impacts of these challenges on communities.
• British Columbia's metropolitan regions are experiencing high growth. Continuing population growth (an additional 1.3 million people expected by 2031)³ increases pressure on housing prices and puts an additional strain on the existing urban infrastructure.
• British Columbian communities are actively working to improve drinking water quality and to promote water conservation.
• The New Deal for Cities and Communities provides $635.6 million over five years for British Columbian communities to finance infrastructure that supports sustainable development. The Ministry of Community Services is the lead ministry working in partnership with the federal government on the New Deal.

Strategic shifts from "provincial control" and "direct service delivery" to "local empowerment" and "service delivery through local communities and/or third parties" will present additional challenges for the ministry in the coming months. Local governments will continue to require expert advice and guidance as they explore and apply their new powers under the Community Charter.

The Ministry of Community Services is also responsible for working in collaboration with other agencies and orders of government to address social, health and economic issues facing inner-city communities within British Columbia's larger cities. Unemployment, crime and homelessness rates in cities' inner cores are usually substantially higher than in cities overall. For example, the unemployment rate in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside was 22 per cent in 2001 compared to eight per cent in Vancouver as a whole; and 22 per cent of the crimes in Vancouver were in the Downtown Eastside⁴. Concerns have also been raised about similar issues facing communities such as Prince George, Surrey and Victoria. Community agencies report seeing more people with increasingly severe economic and health problems.

The problems facing British Columbia's inner-cities can be particularly challenging as:

• in most cases they have taken decades to become established;
• responses must be coordinated across a variety of agencies; and
• effective participation in solutions is often hindered by a lack of capacity among inner-city residents.

To address these issues, the ministry supports the Vancouver Agreement and is working to support other inner-city tripartite agreements.

Women in British Columbia comprise 51 per cent of the population, account for 56 per cent of university enrolment⁵, and represent 47 per cent of the paid labour force⁶ and 36 per cent of the self-employed⁷. Despite the many gains achieved in recent decades, women still face challenges. For example:

• Women's labour force activity and incomes are still more likely to be affected by family and care-giving responsibilities (working part-time, taking time off, and/or retiring early to accommodate family care-giving responsibilities).
• Women rely more heavily on government transfer payments, programs and services than do men.
• Women are still more likely to be a victim of a sexual or physical crime committed by someone they know. For example, in 2004, women accounted for 85 per cent of all victims of spousal assault reported to police in Canada.⁸

The ministry's programs for women are directed almost exclusively toward women who are leaving or have left abusive relationships. One pressure on these programs is the recent trend of an increasing number of women being referred to transition houses for reasons other than abuse.

Today, seniors in British Columbia comprise 13.3 per cent of the population. That proportion is expected to rise to nearly 25 per cent by 2031. In many respects, the majority of British Columbia seniors are enjoying a high quality of life with two-thirds rating their health as either good or very good⁹, and 69.7 per cent reporting that they have a high level of social support¹⁰.

As people advance in age, however, their need for support tends to increase. The fastest growing segment of the seniors' population is those over 80 years of age. This group increased by 54 per cent between 1991 and 2001. As the proportion of seniors in the provincial population goes up, and with a continuing rise in the proportion of seniors over 80, demands on health and community services will increase dramatically. The ministry will provide advice and direction to the government and work with local governments to ensure they are prepared for this shift in demographics. The ministry also provides a coordinated policy response to issues facing seniors and provides information to the public about seniors' services. The ministry supports the Premier's Council on Aging and Seniors' Issues and will be collaborating with other ministries on a coordinated response to the Council's recommendations.

Changes from the Previous Plan

• The ministry's focus is on local government, seniors' and women's issues and issues facing British Columbia's inner-cities and communities in transition.
• Programs no longer resident in the ministry include multiculturalism and immigration, aboriginal directorate, housing building and safety policy, heritage, public library services and the Office of the Fire Commissioner.