Performance Reporting

Overview of Commission Goals

The Commission's goals and objectives in the 2003/04 – 2005/06 Service Plan were revised from the previous plan. Goals 1 and 2 more closely reflect the Commission's purpose from its governing legislation. Goal 3, a new goal, reflects government's New Era commitment to make the Commission more regionally responsive to community needs. Goal 4, relating to how the Commission operates, has been modified to reflect ministry and government operating principles.

Goal 1: Preservation of agricultural land

This goal is the primary purpose of the Commission as set out in the Agricultural Land Commission Act, 2002. Government has given the Commission a mandate to preserve agricultural land and this is accomplished through provincial zoning — the Agricultural Land Reserve or ALR.

Achieving this goal helps to ensure a safe and secure source of food for both domestic and export markets, and contributes to economic and social sustainability. Everyone in BC benefits by the availability of fresh, locally produced, high quality food.

The Commission is primarily responsible for protecting the agricultural land base. However, it relies on local governments, provincial ministries and agencies to help protect agricultural lands through their own policies and planning. These collaborative relationships are critical to achieving success for the goal of protecting agricultural lands.

The Commission's objectives under this goal are to ensure that lands suitable for agriculture are retained in the ALR and that non-farm uses do not significantly impact agricultural suitability and use. The Commission made land use decisions consistent with these objectives. The Commission also worked with local governments, First Nations and other agencies to ensure that the ALR was appropriately reflected in their land use plans, policies and agreements.

Goal 2: The encouragement and enabling of farm businesses

This goal reflects the Commission's purpose to encourage farming on agricultural land. Enabling farming and other compatible economic activities on agricultural land enhances the use and productivity of agricultural land, and contributes to overall sustainability.

Achieving this goal helps to realize the government's goals of "a strong and vibrant provincial economy", and "safe, healthy communities and a sustainable environment". Growth in the agriculture sector contributes to the provincial and regional economies, creates jobs and enhances rural stability. As an important and steady contributor to local and regional economies, agriculture helps stabilize incomes in communities where resource industries are cyclical or in decline. The public benefits from a healthy agricultural sector that, in addition to producing high quality food and other agricultural products, provides environmental values including habitat, recreation opportunities, hydrological functions, air cleansing, green space and more. These broad societal benefits are in line with the Commission's vision to foster overall sustainability.

The Commission shares the responsibility for encouraging farm use of agricultural lands with its key partners. These include local governments, landowners, the agricultural sector and its professional organizations, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, other ministries and agencies, Agriculture Canada and other federal agencies, and First Nations.

To encourage and enable farming in the ALR, the Commission worked with local governments and public agencies to ensure that their plans, policies and activities permitted and enabled the use of the ALR for agriculture. It partnered with other agencies to help reduce the regulatory burden for farm and other land-based businesses in the ALR. In its decision-making and the application of its regulations the Commission allowed for farm business expansion, value-added activities and resource extraction in the ALR.

Goal 3: A provincial land reserve system that considers community interests

The ALR is a land use zone that realizes the provincial interest in protecting agricultural land for farm and related uses. In its decision-making, the Commission balances the provincial interest with community interests to preserve agricultural lands throughout BC.

Achieving this goal helps make land available for farming, related businesses such as agri-tourism and other land-based economic activities. In most cases community needs can be accommodated without diminishing opportunities for farming.

The Commission is primarily responsible for achieving this goal; however it also relies on the cooperation and positive participation of its local government partners and the overall support of the public for its program.

The Commission worked closely with communities and their elected representatives to understand community issues, to assess and address community needs and to balance those with the provincial interest in preserving lands for agriculture. The Commissioners met in their respective regions on a monthly basis so that ALR decision-makers would be familiar with local concerns and issues. These meetings with local government politicians, staff and applicants improved the flow of information and understanding of local issues. The Commission factored community needs into decision-making and it worked closely with those communities preparing plans and bylaws that involved agricultural land.

Goal 4: Sound governance and organizational excellence

This operational goal describes how the Commission achieves its mandate. The Commission goal is to serve the public purpose through sound governance and excellence in its organization and operations.

Achieving this goal improves the Commission's services to the public and its partners.

Within budget constraints, the Commission is responsible for this goal and for the objectives of responsiveness, effectiveness and accountability; timely and efficient response; and performance focused staff.

The Commission continued to make progress towards its objectives to be responsive, effective and accountable and to provide timely and efficient response. The Commission significantly improved its application processing time over the previous year. With the regional structure fully operational the Commission was able to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of its operations. The Commission further developed its methods to assess performance to improve its accountability to government and the public. The objective of performance focused staff was assisted by the completion and implementation of employee performance and development plans for all staff during the year.

Report on Results

Goal 1

Preservation of agricultural land

Objective 1: Lands suitable for agriculture are retained in the ALR

Key Strategy: Adjudicate applications based on land suitability and capability for agriculture.

Performance Measures and Results

The measures are 'total area in ALR' reported in the table and 'net changes in the ALR by region' reported in Appendix 1. The target was to maintain the overall ALR area and minimize net reductions. This target was achieved with a net reduction of ALR area of 222 hectares for the fiscal year compared with a net reduction of 1,922 hectares for the previous fiscal year (2002/03).

Objective 2: Land use changes do not significantly diminish land capability and use for agriculture

Key Strategy: Minimize the amount of suitable agricultural land excluded from the ALR or alienated by incompatible development.

Performance Measures and Results

The original measure for this objective was 'application approvals with significant potential impact'. This measure was under development at the time the Service Plan was published but later was found to be not meaningful (i.e. few applications are approved that have significant impact) and impractical to track. The measure was revised to 'applications approved because of no significant impact' on the ALR. This measure was tracked and the baseline established for 2003/04. There are therefore no comparative results for the previous year. The Commission currently tracks five decision reasons for application approvals — see Appendix 2 for a summary of the decision reasons for applications approved by the Commission during 2003/04.

Objective 3: Expansion of economic opportunities for agriculture and compatible activities

Key Strategy: Consider compatible or complementary activities in the ALR in support of economic diversification.

Performance Measures and Results

The measure 'per cent of applications approved for compatible uses' was eliminated in the 2004/05 – 2006/07 Service Plan. This measure is considered to be no longer relevant as amendments to the regulations now allow many compatible uses in the ALR without the requirement of Commission approval. The measure 'per cent of applications approved with compensating benefit' was tracked and the baseline established for 2003/04. For the third measure, data on the 'estimated value of resource extraction' in the ALR was difficult to obtain because the measure was overly broad. The original measure was modified to report the 'estimated value of oil and gas extraction from the ALR' for the year, for which data was available. This measure reports the economic contribution of a specific non-farm activity, oil and gas development, that is a compatible use in the ALR.

Goal 2

The encouragement and enabling of farm businesses

Objective 1: Plans, policies and activities of local governments, agencies and First Nations encourage, enable and accommodate farming

Key Strategy: Work with local governments to establish guidelines for community planning that address the provincial interest in encouraging farming; and apply the guidelines to plan reviews.

Performance Measure and Results

Applying the ALR guidelines to community planning should help to reduce obstacles to farming in the ALR. The measure is that local government plans are consistent with the guidelines with a target of 80% consistency (audited results) by 2005/06. The guidelines were distributed to local governments in early 2004.

Objective 2: Improved local government capacity to plan for agriculture and support farm businesses

Key Strategy: Encourage local governments to include farm community representatives in planning, including their participation on Board or Council advisory committees.

Performance Measure and Results

Agricultural Advisory Committees and other similar committees help local governments to consider agricultural issues during planning and help build understanding of, and support for, farm businesses in the ALR. The measure is the number of advisory committees with farm sector representation. The baseline is established for 2003/04.

Goal 3

A provincial land reserve system that considers community interests

Objective 1: Increased awareness of community issues within the Reserve

Key Strategy: Build regional responsiveness of the Commission to community issues through increased presence in the regions.

Performance Measure and Results

The number of Commission meeting days in respective panel regions is used as an indicator of responsiveness of the Commission to community interests. The target is to maintain the number of meeting days in regions from the 2002/03 baseline of 112. The target was not met for 2003/04 because of budget and scheduling constraints for the six Commission panels. As well, more meetings were held in 2002/03 to introduce newly appointed Commissioners to the Councils and Boards, and to promote the opportunity for sharing decision-making in the ALR with local governments.

Objective 2: Community issues and needs factored into decision-making

Key Strategy: Consider community issues when making decisions.

Performance Measure and Results

The 'per cent of applications approved for which community need is a factor' is used to indicate the degree to which community needs are factored into decision-making by the Commission. The baseline is established for 2003/04.

Objective 3: Increased participation of local governments and public authorities in ALR decision-making under delegated authority

Key Strategy: Negotiate delegation agreements in priority areas with interested and supportive local governments and public authorities.

Performance Measures and Results

The 2003/04 measures for this objective are the number of delegation agreements in place with local governments and public authorities. Because of the lack of interest by most local governments indelegated authority for the ALR (only 10% were interested), the target of delegating authority to 50% of supportive local governments by 2005/06 has been revised for the 2004/05 – 2006/07 Service Plan. The Commission was not on track to meet its 2005/06 target for the number of delegation agreements with local governments because of the widespread reluctance of local governments to assume additional decision-making authority for the ALR.

The Commission negotiated one agreement with a public authority — the Oil and Gas Commission — but fell short of its target by one agreement.

Goal 4

Sound governance and organizational excellence

Objective 1: A responsive, effective and accountable Commission

Key Strategy: Reduce regulatory requirements.

Performance Measures and Results

The target of a 70% reduction in regulatory requirements — well beyond the government's objective of 33% — was substantially met although the Forest Land Reserve phase-out was not fully implemented and the repeal of the remaining provisions of the Forest Land Reserve Act, regulations and policies was underway but not completed by the end of the fiscal year.

Performance reporting by region improved with baselines established for 2003/04 for a number of measures.

The measure for the 'number of non-farm use/subdivision applications decided by the Commission' was dropped because the number of applications filed with the Commission is effectively beyond the Commission's control. As well, an anticipated reduction in number of applications resulting from the delegation of non-farm use and subdivision decision-making to local governments has not been realized because of lack of interest by local governments.

The Private Managed Forest Land Act was passed by the Legislature in November 2003.

Objective 2: Timely and efficient response

Key Strategy: Set standards for application response times and monitor results.

Performance Measure and Results

The measure for this objective is 'application processing time' and the target is '80% of applications decided within 90 days'. The actual processing timeline, at 76%, was within 4% of the 2003/04 target and well ahead of the results for the previous year (2002/03), when only 66% of applications were decided within 90 days.

Objective 3: Performance-focused staff

Key Strategy: Develop and implement an employee performance and development planning system (EPDP).

Performance Measure and Results

The Commission committed to the completion and implementation of employee performance and development plans (EPDP's) for all employees by the end of 2003/04.

Deregulation

The Commission made further progress in reducing regulatory requirements. This was accomplished with the passage of the Private Managed Forest Land Act in November 2003. This Act provides for the replacement of the program to regulate forest practices on managed forest lands within the Forest Land Reserve, by a new method of service delivery. Based on the new legislation, the Commission is transferring its responsibilities to a Private Managed Forest Land Council (expected in August 2004) and the remaining regulatory requirements will be transferred elsewhere in the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management at that time. However, overall regulatory requirements for the new legislation and regulation are expected to be reduced.

The delegation agreement with the Oil and Gas Commission that came into effect April 1, 2004 provided further regulatory reductions for the Commission's areas of responsibility. Some of these regulatory requirements may be assumed by the Oil and Gas Commission.