Performance Reporting — Continued

Treaty Negotiations Office

Engaging in strategies that clarify aboriginal rights and title (Objective 1), and that involve First Nations in economic opportunities (Objective 2), can strengthen the treaty process, lead to meaningful agreements, and enhance the province's investment climate (Goal 4).

All of the key strategies involve processes that are intended to facilitate meaningful agreements and secure continued involvement of the province's treaty partners. These processes include:

• working with the province's treaty partners to explore options to revitalize treaty negotiations following the referendum;
• developing workable models for self-government arrangements that help the parties conclude agreements;
• implementing the Economic Measures Fund to support government's economic priorities and increase First Nations' participation in the economy;
• building strong relationships between First Nations and local governments and business interests to facilitate partnerships and joint initiatives;
• working proactively to address disputes and minimize potential disruption;
• using the referendum results as a base of public support on which to build local support for negotiated agreements;
• ensuring the disruption of legal interests is minimized in the negotiation and settlement of treaties and other agreements;
• consulting with local governments and stakeholders to ensure their views are taken into account during negotiations; and
• fulfilling implementation obligations arising from treaties and other agreements and providing leadership and support to line ministries during the process.

Three key performance measures inform this core business area.

This measure reflects the number of treaty-related agreements (e.g., agreements-in-principle, final agreements, significant measures to protect or acquire lands for treaty settlement purposes) entered into with First Nations and Canada. There were no baseline data for this measure since the approach reflects a shift in the way treaties with First Nations are negotiated. Consequently the target denotes an estimated acceptable range for the measure, and the result shows that the range is a realistic one.

This measure represents the number of agreements achieved that focused on government's major economic priorities (e.g., oil and gas exploration and development, 2010 Olympic Bid, forestry, Central Coast initiatives, aquaculture). The target was an estimate. Variance from the estimate is due to higher than expected applications of multi-year proposals to the Economic Measures Fund.

This measure tracks the number of First Nations citizens that are engaged in training opportunities related to activities under the Economic Measures Fund. During the reporting period, training opportunities were somewhat lower than anticipated when the 2002/03 target was set. Many training programs were established during the fiscal year and began operating only after the fiscal year end.