Ministry 2003/04 -- 2005/06 Service Plan -- Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services

Performance Reporting — Continued

Core Business Area: Services for communities and First Nations

To increase the vitality of our communities, through support for the arts, culture and heritage preservation.
To encourage the pursuit of excellence in sport and promote healthy, active lifestyles through physical activity.
To win the 2010 Winter Olympic Bid to host the games in British Columbia.

Performance Measure	Target 2002/03	Actual 2002/03
Development of a sport and physical activity policy and action plans:
• Cabinet approval of policy	• June 2002	• Framework for BC's Policy on Sport and Physical Activity was completed in March 2002.¹
• Complete three action plans (Active Schools, Active Communities and Organized Sports)	• March 2003	• The Active Schools, Active Communities and Organized Sports recommendations report: Moving Ahead — From Policy to Action Recommendations for a Sustainable Future for Sport and Physical Activity in British Columbia was completed. Development of actions plans was still underway at the end of March 2003.²
• Develop performance measures for plans	• March 2003	• Performance measures for these plans were still being developed as of March 31, 2003.³
2010 Olympic Bid — meet key deadlines established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
• IOC questionnaire	• June 2002	• IOC questionnaire was submitted in May 2002.
• Acceptance as candidate bid city	• September 2002	• Vancouver was accepted as a candidate bid city in September 2002.
• Candidate cities submit bid books	• January 2003	• Bid book submitted in January 2003.


Discussion of variance:
¹	The ministry will decide in 2003/04 whether the policy framework will go to Cabinet.
²	Action plans to complement the Policy on Sport and Physical Activity are under development. Consultation with stakeholders resulted in a comprehensive set of recommendations that will inform this development. The recommendations are captured in Moving Ahead — From Policy to Action Recommendations for a Sustainable Future for Sport and Physical Activity in British Columbia. The Sport and Physical Activity Branch will implement an action plan to address these recommendations in 2003/04.
³	Appropriate performance measures are being developed as action plans are being completed.

Sport and Physical Activity Branch

Consultations on the sport and physical activity action plans led to the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Health Planning and the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services to share resources to address physical inactivity. The ministry agreed to contribute resources to Action Schools BC!, an initiative of the Ministry of Health Planning.
The Aboriginal Youth FIRST rural program completed its first year with 200 participants. The Urban Aboriginal Program was also developed for implementation in June 2003. As well, the Sport and Physical Activity Branch oversaw Team BC's participation in the 2003 Canada Winter Games in New Brunswick and helped to prepare Team BC for the 2003 Western Canada Summer Games.

Heritage Branch

Negotiations with the federal government established a contribution agreement to implement the Historic Places Initiative (HPI) in BC. HPI is a national program that brings together provincial, federal and local governments and the heritage community. The new agreement, for the period December 1, 2002 to March 31, 2004, will transfer $920,000 in federal funds to the Heritage Branch to support:
- the creation of the Canadian Register of Historic Places;
- the promotion of new Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places; and,
- the establishment of a project certification process linked to new federal financial incentives for the conservation and rehabilitation of built heritage.
Following the direction of the Core Services Review, the branch assisted in winding up the operations of the British Columbia Heritage Trust, effective March 31, 2003.
A new non-government British Columbia Heritage Legacy Fund with a $5 million provincial endowment was created to provide a source of future funding for community heritage projects.
At the direction of the Core Services Review, the Heritage Branch successfully initiated the first phases of the process to devolve management of its 15 heritage sites. By March 31, 2003, seven Requests for Proposal had been issued and evaluated.

Cultural Services Branch

The branch developed and secured approval for the Book Publishing Tax Credit, a new refundable tax credit for B.C. book publishers, introduced as part of the Province's 2003/04 budget. The credit will help BC-based publishers grow, develop markets and compete with other jurisdictions.
The Cultural Services Branch also provided support for Celebration 2010, a province-wide arts festival focused on the contribution of the arts to a successful Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

Olympic Bid, Community Initiatives and Vancouver Agreement

The Olympic Bid Secretariat partnered with community groups and other ministries to initiate health, education and youth programs such as:
- Action Schools! BC, a best practices physical activity model designed to assist elementary schools in creating individualized action plans to promote healthy living;
- Education2010.ca, a site that combines the Olympic experience and values with curriculum-based projects, media and resources to create an exciting learning environment for teachers and students; and,
- SportFit, a program to help young people in schools and communities identify sports that they are most likely to excel in. This may lead to Olympic success or simply more personal enjoyment of sports.
The Community Initiatives and Vancouver Agreement Branch facilitated partnerships for businesses and residents of the Vancouver Downtown Eastside, such as the Steamworks Tour de Gastown annual cycle race, the Sunrise Dental Clinic and the Chinatown Millennium Gate.