Part A: Integrated Land Management Bureau
Strategic Context
Three factors are anticipated as key drivers for the Bureau over the next three years.
- The requirement that provincial ministries and agencies work corporately to achieve government goals. This includes economic
development that addresses cumulative impacts and is balanced with sustainable environmental management. The Bureau, along
with many provincial government agencies, is engaged in achieving a number of cross government priorities, such as preparing
for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, responding corporately to the Mountain Pine Beetle infestation, assisting
with advancing provincial tourism, water management and air quality goals, and furthering provincial economic investment objectives
targeted at making B.C. Canada's Asia Pacific gateway.
- The continued demand from North American and international markets for B.C. natural resources. This results in requests to
the Bureau to facilitate responsible access to a wide range of natural resources, work to provide certainty for investors,
and plan for and allocate Crown land to meet the needs of communities, First Nations and economic development.
- Government's commitment to implementing the New Relationship with First Nations. This will provide opportunities to improve
the well-being of First Nations and non-First Nations in British Columbia.
Opportunities and Challenges
These key drivers present the Bureau with a number of opportunities and challenges in each of its core businesses. Strategies
to realize these opportunities and to address and manage the challenges are described under the section on Goals, Objectives,
Strategies and Results.
Regional Client Services
Opportunities
Clients seeking access to provincial natural resources have indicated a need for a "single-point-of-contact" to ensure full
disclosure of the process, steps and costs they face in order to reduce runaround times between agencies and to streamline
and integrate application processes. Different clients require different service channels (face-to-face, phone, fax, e-mail,
web and mail). Interviews with representatives of related government organizations in other jurisdictions have also identified
clear benefits from such single-point-of-contact services and cross government integration to both clients and government.
Identified benefits to government include an enhanced business-friendly reputation; streamlined measures that reduce government
costs and frustrations; reduced time that regulatory agencies have to spend responding to general enquiries; and economies
of scale and scope from clients being assisted by FrontCounter BC staff who are experienced in translating technical information
and requirements into plain language.
FrontCounter BC delivers the following outcomes:
- reduced duplication of information requests;
- full disclosure of requirements, process steps and costs, and hence better-informed applicants;
- higher levels of satisfaction with government agencies dealing with natural resources;
- better informed resource-use proposals from clients;
- better access to, and use of, existing public resource data and information; and
- timely resource-use decisions resulting in greater certainty for investors.
Challenges
The principal challenge is developing and maintaining coordination of client-centred service with sponsoring ministries, including
staff training, supporting information technology and work processes. The Integrated Land Management Bureau has negotiated
service-level agreements with all partner agencies to address this challenge.
Land and Resource Management Planning
Opportunities
The completion and implementation of strategic land and resource management plans continue to be of strong interest to First Nations,
industry sectors, businesses and individuals desiring certainty of access to natural resources and/or to protect the environmental
values of specific areas. Regional stakeholder planning tables have concluded their work on three strategic-level plans: Lillooet,
Sea-to-Sky Phase II and Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands. These plans are nearing the end point of the provincial government-to-First
Nation ("government-to-government") discussion stage. It is anticipated that all three will have moved into the implementation
stages by the end of 2007-08.
Government has completed a comprehensive internal review of strategic land-use planning processes. The overall goal is more
efficient, target planning efforts within available resources and to engage First Nations so that their interests and values
can be better incorporated. Government has also continued to direct some resources to the review of existing approved strategic
land and resource management plans where there is a demonstrated need (e.g., to address Mountain Pine Beetle).
Challenges
Approval dates for government decisions on desired land-use plans may need to be extended due to the need to consult with
First Nations and/or continue to work with First Nations in the spirit of the New Relationship. The extent to which existing
government-approved plans are reviewed and amended is directly related to the resources available to take on these tasks.
The Bureau worked closely with partner agencies to address the challenges in the land-use planning policies and process review
completed last year.
Species-at-Risk Coordination
Species-at-risk are an indicator of the environmental health of the province. B.C.'s geography and diversity of ecosystems
support a wide variety and diverse range of plant and animal species. Although B.C. has had some success in managing species-at-risk
and recently received the federal government's endorsement for recovery efforts to address the decline of the Northern Spotted
Owl, the province believes a more coordinated effort may provide better results and best value for its investments in addressing
this complex issue. Species-at-risk are not generally the end result of just one issue. Species-at-risk management issues
cut across all sectors of the province's resource economy — forestry, oil and gas, mining, tourism, wildlife harvesting, First Nations
interests, international trade — and affect B.C.'s ability to attract and support investment.
Opportunities
Provincial efforts to reduce the number of species-at-risk and/or manage and recover species-at-risk have primarily been reactive.
The province responds to federal species-at-risk legislation, to advocacy campaigns by some stakeholder groups or to outcomes
from broader land and resource decision-making processes like land-use plans. Through management tools made available in legislation,
such as the Wildlife Act and Forest and Range Practices Act, the province has taken significant steps to implement sustainable wildlife harvesting, mining, tourism and results-based
forestry practices that address and help manage species-at-risk. There remains a need, however, for effective cross government
coordination, particularly for a number of broad-ranging species that utilize large land areas and for which recovery requires
coordination of management activities across many government organizations, businesses and industry.
The Bureau is accountable for coordinating development of a government-wide, science-based approach to the management and
recovery of broad-ranging species-at-risk, specifically the Northern Spotted Owl, Mountain Caribou and Marbled Murrelet. The Bureau
works closely with partner ministries and agencies to compile the science and craft strategies for review by key interests
and stakeholders. Further, the Bureau is developing strategies to shift the province's approach to species-at-risk management
from a reactive to proactive model by working with partner ministries in developing a corporate species-at-risk action plan
that will, in part, provide stability to resource management and development companies.
Challenges
While recovery and management options have been developed and/or endorsed by the scientific community and other levels of
government, some management options being considered for the remaining regional populations of the three species noted above
may not meet the expectations of all stakeholders. It is anticipated there will be direct and indirect economic impacts to
some industries, such as forestry, that are a direct outcome of certain recovery strategies. Further, other large issues like
the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic and a warming climate may also challenge provincial efforts for the management and recovery
of species-at-risk.
Land and Resource Information
Opportunities
Industry, businesses, individuals and various levels of government need access to relevant, reliable land and resource information
and related services to support informed, science-based decision-making. Access to land and resource information needs to
be seamless, easy-to-understand and timely. The Bureau is reviewing options for expanding and simplifying how natural resource
information is made available to clients outside the provincial government.
Government uses a number of information technologies and management (IT/IM) applications that are agency or ministry-specific
to manage information concerning applications for natural resource-use authorizations (e.g., permits, tenures, licences) and
for related compliance and enforcement activities. Finding synergies between these different applications should produce significant
efficiency gains.
Challenges
Managing client expectations, setting priorities and coordinating information sources across government within available resources
is an ongoing challenge. One major reason is that the Bureau is not the steward of most of the natural resource information
held by government.5 Its role is restricted to managing all of the natural resource information after it has been collected and quality assured
by other agencies, and then providing mechanisms to disseminate this information to users.
There are many different information technology applications being used by the Bureau to manage land and resource information.6 While considerable progress on systems integration has been made over the last four years, additional work is being done
to create a more seamless system.