Part A: Integrated Land Management Bureau

Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Results

Overview

Bureau Goals

The Bureau provides British Columbians with single-point-of-contact services to access natural resources via permits, licences, tenures, Crown land sales and grants or to obtain natural resource information. Achievement of this goal will support the government-wide priority to provide better services to British Columbians, help reduce the regulatory burden and result in responsible economic development while respecting social and environmental values.

The Bureau is focused on achieving an effective balance between providing certainty for resource developers, supporting the needs of non-Aboriginal and First Nation communities, furthering responsible economic development and sustaining the environment. Land and resource-use plans and the facilitation of the implementation of government-approved plans are key mechanisms used to deliver the above goal. The Bureau provides strategic leadership and corporate coordination of efforts for the recovery and management of three broad-ranging species-at-risk. The Bureau is also the major Land Act decision-maker for Crown land tenures or sales and has an administration and management responsibility for Crown land.

Widely available, high quality, correctly interpreted and easy-to-understand information is key to effective, efficient, balanced and equitable planning and management of
Crown land and resources. The Bureau integrates resource information from various sources and provides natural resource information to external users and to internal provincial natural resource managers. This goal also recognizes the Bureau's role in providing corporate leadership and overall governance of land and resource information for all of government.

Linkage to the Five Great Goals

The Bureau directly assists and supports the effective delivery of Goals 4 and 5 of the province's Five Great Goals for a Golden Decade. These two goals are identified below along with a brief description of the Bureau's key supporting initiatives.

The Bureau's land and resource management planning, client-centred natural resource authorization access services, access to Crown land, and resource information services provide significant opportunities to balance responsible economic and community development with proactive mechanisms to achieve a sustainable environment. These functions directly support government's goal of world-leading sustainable environmental management.

The Bureau's contribution to a number of cross ministry initiatives supports Goal 4 (see next section for details). In summary, these are:

• development of recovery plans for broad-ranging species-at-risk;
• landscape-level and sustainable resource management planning:
• Planning that can result in the establishment of legal objectives¹⁴ for Old Growth Management Areas and other biological targets required to implement the Forest and Range Practices Act (Goals 4 and 5);
• land and resource management planning with First Nations that balances economic development and sustainable environmental management:
• Strategic land and resource management planning that furthers the New Relationship with First Nations (Goals 4 and 5);
• coordination of marine and coastal planning projects and participation in federal marine planning initiatives;
• integrated resource information management:
• By improving access to land and resource information, the Bureau facilitates timely and transparent natural resource decision-making for business, governments and the public (Goals 4 and 5);
• coordination of Inter-Agency Management Committees to provide a forum through which government agencies can consult, collaborate and integrate their land and resource functions;
• Mountain Pine Beetle planning initiatives which address such issues as habitat conservation values in impacted areas; and
• planning and provision of Crown land to support the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, thereby facilitating economic development while addressing a number of environmental interests such as incorporating Crown land habitat for the Northern Spotted Owl to assist in its recovery (Goals 4 and 5).

All of the Bureau's major functions support this government goal by fostering greater investment confidence and responsible economic development.

• The Bureau provides integrated, timely, lower cost and more certain access to Crown land and resources through:
• FrontCounter BC single-point-of-contact offices for clients seeking access to natural resources;
• land and resource management planning activities; and
• improved access to land and resource information.
• First Nations' involvement, consultation and accommodation enhance their participation in the provincial economy through the development and implementation of land and resource-use plans that will improve investment certainty.
• The Bureau provides access to Crown land through a range of tenure mechanisms and strategic Crown land sales and grants.

The Bureau will also support this government goal by facilitating strategic land and resource management planning through:

• finalizing the "First Nation to Province" government-to-government negotiations phase of four key strategic land-use plans and presenting the final plans to government for decision;
• completing sustainable resource management plans and facilitating their implementation with First Nations; and
• discussing new strategic land-use planning requests with partner agencies, key interests, other levels of government and stakeholders and making recommendations to government on the priority of this work.

Cross Ministry Initiatives

The provincial government has identified priorities for action that will require concerted efforts across government. Several of these initiatives and the Bureau's contribution are identified below.

2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games

All provincial ministries, agencies and Crown corporations have been working together to ensure every available opportunity to develop sustainable economic legacies is explored and pursued so that businesses and communities in British Columbia receive benefit from the Games. The Bureau supports the 2010 Olympics by:

• providing corporate leadership through the Sea-to-Sky Land Use Coordination Strategy to ensure First Nations, community, business and environmental interests are adequately addressed so that Olympic venues can be constructed on time and on budget;
• working with representatives of VANOC, the 2010 Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, on Northern Spotted Owl recovery strategies, one of the key broad-ranging species-at-risk resident in the Whistler area;
• facilitating the corporate implementation of the Sea-to-Sky strategic land and resource-use plan with partner First Nations; and
• guiding inter-agency coordination via the Sea-to-Sky Inter-agency Working Group through the provision of Crown land for Olympic and Olympic-related venues, Nordic venue trails assessment, agreements on highway development, and supporting the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation in the delivery of the Shared Legacies Agreement.

The Bureau will also work with the federal government to assist with planning Olympic event security.

Mountain Pine Beetle

Projections indicate the Mountain Pine Beetle infestation could kill 80 per cent of the pine forest in British Columbia by 2013. Pine forests dominate the B.C. interior, and their loss has significant implications to the forest environment, economy and the communities that depend on those forests for sustainability. The B.C. government, through coordination by the Ministry of Forests and Range and the Provincial Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan, is working across a number of ministries to minimize and mitigate negative environmental and socio-economic impacts of the infestation, while recovering the greatest value and protecting public health, safety and infrastructure. During 2007/08, the Bureau will, in teamwork with other provincial ministries, lead and/or support implementation of the action plan in the following ways:

• where partner agencies have indicated that the planning task is a high priority, review and amend approved strategic land-use plans in areas impacted by Mountain Pine Beetle to ensure that all plan requirements, including timber availability, tourism, recreation, road access development and habitat conservation values, are addressed to the greatest extent possible given the scale of the infestation while facilitating new economic development opportunities;
• consistent with the evolving New Relationship with First Nations, engage interested First Nations participation in strategic land-use plan reviews and implementation in Mountain Pine Beetle-impacted areas; and
• provide base mapping standards and quality control for new ortho-imagery and air photography to identify wildfire stands and Mountain Pine Beetle-damaged stands as part of planning support to:
• salvage activities;
• silviculture activity scheduling and monitoring; and
• timber supply reviews.

Asia Pacific Initiative

The British Columbia Asia Pacific Initiative ensures the province has a coordinated and targeted strategic plan in place that takes full advantage of B.C.'s Pacific Gateway advantages and Asian cultural and language base. The Asia Pacific Initiative defines B.C.'s future role in the Asia Pacific economy and identifies the immediate priority actions that must be taken to further integrate the province into Asian markets.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Development, the Bureau will market support for the Asia Pacific Initiative by highlighting investment opportunities. The Bureau is also preparing a multilingual DVD that showcases B.C.'s land and resource development information with the goal of encouraging more international investment in the province.

Regulatory Reform

British Columbia continues to make regulatory reform a priority across government, making it easier for businesses to operate and succeed in British Columbia, while still preserving regulations that protect public health, safety and the environment. A citizen-centred approach to regulatory reform will reduce the number of steps it takes to comply with government requirements or access government programs and services.

The Bureau will support government's regulatory reform initiatives by committing to controlling regulatory burden and improving regulatory quality. Maintaining the success achieved in reducing the regulatory burden over the last three years is a desired outcome. During the next three years the Bureau will continue seeking opportunities for regulatory reform, including:

• exploring new efficiencies to be achieved through the FrontCounter BC offices (e.g., coordinated inter-governmental referrals, making low-risk resource-use decisions on behalf of other agencies, implementing authorization-specific target turnaround times for processing new applications, developing associated business process amendments and deregulation initiatives);
• working with natural resource authorization issuing agencies and staff from the Service Delivery Initiative Office (Ministry of Labour and Citizens' Services) to build common authorization information management and technology solutions; and
• supporting further shifts towards results-based regulations, including establishing recovery plans for broad-ranging species-at-risk.

The Bureau will adhere to the regulatory criteria set out in the Regulatory Reform Policy and will target a zero per cent net increase in regulation through 2008/09.

Citizen-Centred Service Delivery

Citizen-centred service delivery is a government-wide initiative to coordinate information, programs and services so that they can be presented to citizens in a way that takes their needs into account from beginning to end. The vision is to make it possible for citizens to access the government information and services they need in a simple and timely manner with a phone call, a mouse click or a visit to a service centre, no matter how many programs or ministries are involved in their request.

• The Bureau has partnered with key natural resource management ministries and agencies to provide FrontCounter BC services from eight major regional centres for clients seeking information and assistance in making applications for natural resource permits, licences, approvals and Crown land tenures, sales and grants. These services will be available on a multichannel basis to all British Columbians.
• The Bureau has also worked with the Ministry of Labour and Citizens' Services to coordinate FrontCounter BC regional service delivery, with those services offered from the more widely dispersed Government Agents/Service BC locations.
• The Bureau is working closely with the Ministry of Labour and Citizens' Services and natural resource management agencies on the development of cooperative IT/IM systems for land and resource information and natural resource authorization management.
• The Bureau will also be working with the Ministry of Small Business and Revenue to ensure linkages between natural resource authorization processes and deregulation initiatives.

Bureau Performance Plan Summary

Performance Plan

This section outlines how each of the Bureau's six objectives, its strategies and seven performance measures and targets help achieve the organization's three goals. The performance measures are mostly at the objective level and, for simplicity, have been placed at the end of the description of each goal, its objectives and strategies.

In striving to achieve this goal, the Bureau is providing its clients with responsive and timely services concerning natural resources that integrate resource information and access to a wide range of authorizations previously provided by many ministries and agencies. FrontCounter BC offices provide integrated, single-point-of-contact services for clients seeking access to land and resource information, permits, licences, approvals and Crown land tenures, sales and grants in each region of the province. During 2006/07 more offices opened, and FrontCounter BC is now delivering services in Nanaimo, Surrey, Cranbrook, Kamloops, Williams Lake, Prince George, Smithers, Fort St. John and Victoria.

Citizens and the business community expect public services that are timely, accessible, transparent and efficient and provided by knowledgeable, courteous staff. Bureau clients have indicated a need for single-point-of-contact service for natural resources that ensures accurate up-front information, full disclosure of the steps and costs to proceed, reduces runaround time between agencies, and streamlines application processes. These clients also expect the convenience of multiple access options. Achieving the objective will ensure that the Bureau's FrontCounter BC services are strongly citizen-driven with a consequent impact on all its business under Goal 1 and, indeed, its other goals.

• Co-locate regional Bureau staff with other natural resource ministries and/or other government services where practical;
• enhance accessibility by providing multichannel service delivery (face-to-face, telephone, 1-800 number, fax, e-mail, mail and web-based);
• implement full FrontCounter BC services at specified locations using a staged approach concluding in 2007/08 that provides opportunities to select and train staff, and implement new authorization tracking and management systems;
• market Bureau services and tailor their delivery method at each FrontCounter BC location to the specific needs of businesses, communities and the public;
• actively support and respond to First Nations, community development opportunities and growth in new and emerging regional business sectors. Build market-based partnerships with the business community, local governments and First Nations; and
• provide professional, knowledgeable, FrontCounter BC support to clients applying for, or seeking guidance about, natural resource-related tenures, permits, licences, Crown grants, sales and information. Also, ensure FrontCounter BC services are provided in a fair and transparent manner.

The Bureau pursues this objective in order to provide FrontCounter BC services to its clients in the most efficient manner. Service agreements are being developed with partner agencies to ensure quick turnaround times for natural resource applications, which will continue to be required to meet guidelines aimed at ensuring balance, respect for environmental values, transparency and other factors. Meeting application processing and adjudication timelines on land and resource applications is critical, particularly for the business community.

• In collaboration with client ministries, develop service agreements, monitor performance measures and targets, and champion innovative business strategies that continue to improve services to clients;
• work with other provincial natural resource agencies and levels of government to streamline authorization application processes and IT/IM systems, implement deregulation initiatives and achieve seamless delivery of natural resource authorization services;
• adapt the FrontCounter BC business model over the plan period based on an evaluation of differing strategies being pursued in different locations, as well as the demand for services;
• facilitate the availability of Crown land for community development; and
• ensure Crown land tenuring, sales and grants are undertaken in a timely and balanced manner to ensure conservation of environmental values, development and implementation of the New Relationship with First Nations, protection of social and community values, promotion of economic development and transparency of the process.

Client satisfaction rating as determined by client survey. The Bureau is primarily a client service agency. Surveys are one way to measure the satisfaction of clients with the service performed. This information is crucial to operational effectiveness.

Turnaround time for preparing natural resource applications by FrontCounter BC staff for adjudication by partner agencies. This measure will reflect FrontCounter BC's success in assisting businesses and individuals to prepare more complete applications for natural resource-use authorizations and in streamlining the processes in other ways so that less time is required by the partner agency adjudication staff to review and decide on applications.

Timely processing of applications for new Crown land use authorizations under the Land Act by the Bureau and the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. This measure specifically addresses the timeliness of application processing from the time a client's application is accepted and fees received to the notification of an adjudication result and/or offer of a Crown land tenure or sale from the Bureau to the client.

This goal focuses the core businesses of the Bureau on achieving an effective balance between furthering economic development, sustaining viable communities and sustaining environmental values. Such balance is vital if the well-being of the province's citizens is to be maximized in perpetuity. Four Bureau activities are specifically directed towards achieving this goal:

• strategic land and resource-use planning conducted at various scales and involving extensive stakeholder and First Nations consultation, as well as negotiations on a government-to-government basis with First Nations;
• leadership of provincial and regional scale inter-agency committees and other activities aimed at integrating decision-making and regional program delivery across all government natural resource agencies;
• strategic leadership and corporate coordination of programs for the recovery and management of some broad-ranging species-at-risk assigned to it; and
• reviewing these first three activities to ensure they contribute to, and build on, the New Relationship with First Nations, as well as streamlining them to improve their effectiveness and efficiency.

Each of these activities should result in reduced resource-use conflicts, improved certainty in the use of Crown natural resources, improved environmental sustainability and more efficient delivery of these outcomes.

The Bureau is tasked by government and the natural resource management agencies it serves to facilitate completion and finalization of strategic land and resource management plans and to consult and engage First Nations throughout the planning process. Strategic-level plans and the implementation strategies that accompany them are the highest-level land and resource management plans undertaken by government. Finalization of these plans will help ensure resource management decisions take into account the needs of communities, the economy and the environment, as well as First Nation values and concerns, now and into the future.

Sustainable resource management plans¹⁶ that address economic development and/or address resource-use conflicts are also important to achieving Goal 2. These plans identify where and how land and resources should be allocated and managed to promote resource-use certainty and economic activity and to sustain environmental values, including maintaining critical habitat for specific species and identifying areas for commercial and public recreation. Their scope and planning boundaries are driven by these specific resource issues, conflicts and opportunities under study. Completion and implementation of sustainable resource management plans will involve joint planning and new partnerships with interested First Nations and will contain policies and guidelines supporting sustainable resource management.

In addition to sustainable resource management plans, the Bureau will undertake other specific initiatives under this objective, such as supporting amendments to government policies to ensure sustainable access to Crown land or resources for development.

• Advance unapproved land and resource management plan recommendations from planning tables to the finalization of government-to-government negotiations with First Nations who have engaged in discussions. To date, two land and resource management plans are at this stage: Lillooet and Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands. The Bureau continues to facilitate implementation of the February 2006 Central and North Coast land-use decision;
• oversee implementation and revision of approved strategic-level land and resource-use management plans to maintain their effectiveness. Also, review and update strategic land and resource management plans in areas impacted by Mountain Pine Beetle as increased logging of killed timber has in many cases affected the timber supply projections on which these plans were based and other resource values. This strategy will also assist in increasing public awareness of this important issue;
• review and amend land and resource-use planning processes to make them more efficient and to involve First Nations on a government-to-government basis, thus furthering the New Relationship with First Nations;
• lead regionally based Inter-Agency Management Committees to coordinate government interests in the management of provincial natural resources;¹⁸
• establish and facilitate regional strategic land and resource plan implementation committees to maintain community and stakeholder involvement in the plans. Also, publicly communicate the provisions and benefits of each of these strategic land and resource-use plans and, more generally, the benefits of balanced utilization of natural resources in collaboration with work under other objectives and programs; and
• under the Headwaters to Oceans Strategy, coordinate marine and coastal planning projects, participate in federal planning initiatives and lead the provincial planning component of the proposed federal-provincial marine protected areas strategy.

Under this objective the Bureau will seek greater engagement of First Nations in land and resource-use planning, with particular emphasis on the strategic level. The New Relationship, Vision and Principles document makes clear that land and resources are vital to First Nations. It commits both parties to mutually develop "integrated intergovernmental structures and policies to promote cooperation, including practical and workable arrangements for land and resource decision-making and sustainable development" (p. 3). The first item in the New Relationship action plan is to "develop new institutions or structures to negotiate Government-to-Government Agreements for shared decision-making regarding land-use planning, management, tenuring and resource revenue and benefit sharing" (p. 4).

The Bureau will work with the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, and First Nations bodies to develop these new institutions or structures. It will be an evolving process. In the meantime, continued and improved engagement of First Nations in the provincial land and resource-use planning processes will be an important indicator of New Relationship implementation.

• Consistent with the New Relationship, engage First Nations in land and resource management planning by undertaking a number of exploratory initiatives which build on existing relationships in government-to-government forums and, where appropriate, at regional planning tables and committees;
• in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture and Lands and Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, develop more effective mechanisms to fulfil the Crown's duty to consult and accommodate for Land Act dispositions;
• assist Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation with negotiating accommodation on high-priority plans and projects;
• assist Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation with cross government coordination of New Relationship implementation in the resource sector through regional Inter-Agency Management and Sub-regional Managers Committees; and
• simplify development referrals to First Nations, participate in pilot projects to realize new efficiencies to address First Nations and develop a single-window approach for the management and dissemination of Province–First Nations agreements and related information.

The Bureau will work with partner agencies and make best efforts to facilitate proactive efforts that will address issues with species-at-risk while providing certainty for investment.

To achieve these outcomes, the Bureau will work with the Ministry of Environment and other natural resource ministries in development of an outcomes-based, proactive, coordinated, scientifically credible and defensible approach to the management and recovery of species-at-risk in BC. The Bureau's principal focus will be on coordinating:

• the development of thorough options for management and recovery of B.C.'s complement of globally significant broad-ranging species-at-risk; and
• corporate investments in recovering species-at-risk and their critical habitats.

The aim of this coordination will be to change from a reactive approach to a proactive one and to maximize the effectiveness of our investments.

• Develop a corporate species-at-risk action plan with partner ministries that benefits the economy by creating a predictable management framework around which resource development companies can depend and which shifts the province's approach to species-at-risk management from a reactive to proactive model;
• implement government-approved actions to better coordinate a corporate approach to managing species-at-risk;
• coordinate implementation of the Northern Spotted Owl recovery strategy;
• work with partner ministries — specifically the Ministries of Environment and Forests and Range — on the review and assessment of the Forest and Range Practices Act Identified Wildlife Management Strategy. In addition, Bureau staff will participate in the review of the Old Growth Management Area orders to implement management decisions for some species-at-risk as required (e.g., Marbled Murrelet); and
• work with key provincial agencies, First Nations and non-government stakeholders to develop recovery options for two key broad-ranging species — Mountain Caribou and Marbled Murrelet — and bring forward these options to government for decision.

Land-use decisions finalized by government and plan implementation initiated. Three strategic land-use plans are currently nearing the end of the government-to-government negotiation phase with First Nations (Sea-to-Sky Phase II, Lillooet and Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands). This measure tracks progress in advancing these plans to government decision. Government-approved land-use decisions are then implemented by agencies with the appropriate resource mandate.

Number of land and resource management partnerships or agreements with First Nations¹⁹ achieved. This measure will indicate the growth of partnerships or agreements between the Bureau and First Nations on issues such as land and resource planning, FrontCounter BC services, and resource information. It is a basic measure of the New Relationship as it applies to natural resource management.

Advance a new approach and broad-ranging species-at-risk recovery plans for consideration by government. This measure indicates progress made in developing and presenting to government recovery plans for key, broad-ranging species-at-risk that require broad, cross government action and leadership. For this reason they have been assigned to the Species-at-Risk Coordination Office. The currently assigned species for which recovery plans are to be brought forward to government for decision are Mountain Caribou and Marbled Murrelet.

Integration of resource information from various sources and its effective delivery is fundamental to achieving the effective, efficient and balanced management of Crown land and resources. The Bureau has a pivotal role to play in this task. The Bureau manages and provides natural resource information to external users such as other governments, businesses, communities, industry and the public and to other provincial ministries and agencies. The Bureau also provides corporate leadership and overall governance across the province concerning standards, systems and pricing for the management, storage and delivery of land and resource information. It is also responsible for providing base-mapping products and related services that assist all sectors of the economy.

Growth in the provision of spatially referenced information to both the public and to government clients is seen as a key performance measure for this goal. It captures the significance of integration and delivery, as well as the importance of the Bureau's base-mapping function.

This objective concerns the effective management and delivery of resource information to clients across the provincial government and on a province-wide basis, largely through integrated web-based systems.²¹ The same information, and local derivatives and analyses developed from it, is also delivered regionally. Understanding and meeting the needs of clients is crucial to achieving this objective.

Bureau regional staff deliver the same land and resource information through FrontCounter BC offices as well as in information packages to support strategic and land and resource-use planning projects. Providing effective land and resource information, services and related analysis leads to more fully informed regional clients, better decision-making and reduced application processing times.

The Bureau's programs also focus on providing overall governance across the province concerning standards, systems and pricing for the collection, storage and delivery of land and resource information.

• Improve the marketing of corporate resource information services to both internal and external clients through better communication and consultation. The intent is to ensure products and services provided are client-driven and meet client needs and business goals. This strategy will help to ensure the Bureau focuses on clients and builds its products and services in response to their feedback;
• manage and deliver information and related products and services fundamental to government, industry, business and public needs while providing internal and external clients with value-added information and support;
• manage and maintain land and resource data holdings. This is to ensure that the provincial data the Bureau is responsible for are adequately maintained to meet both government and public needs. Within this scope is base-mapping data, warehoused information and repository (catalogue and related metadata) information;
• deliver self-service web-based access and analytical tools that meet client needs and undertake analyses concerning natural resources for business or individual clients using geographic and other information systems. Also, support regionally managed land and resource planning projects as prioritized by regional Inter-Agency Management Committees;
• coordinate regional land and resource data collection issues, including setting standards, performing quality control, liaising with information providers and building land and resource information partnerships;
• establish a sector-level Land and Resource Information Council with membership from government, industry and the public to address business, information and system issues/needs from a sector-level perspective; and
• improve public access to provincial land and resource information by establishing a single gateway to resource sector information products and services. Also, improve the usability of land and resource information products and services by establishing the necessary common information policy, standards, procedures and best business practices that are needed to ensure data from different sources can be integrated.

The Bureau participates on the Inter-ministry Research and Innovation Committee, which is led by the Ministry of Advanced Education. The committee serves to enhance linkages and communication about key research and innovation initiatives among ministries.

Performance Measure

Growth in the utilization of land and resource data, products and related services by public and government clients. This is an indicator of the usefulness of the land and resource services to the Bureau's clients. The measure reflects the usage of an extensive set of tools available through the Natural Resource Information Centre to access land and resource information. A growing list of resource information data sets and tools are being made available online to the public.²²

Changes to Service Plan Objectives and Performance Measures

The Bureau reduced the number of service plan objectives and performance measures this year in order to more accurately reflect and report on the services the Bureau provides.