2003/04 Annual Service Plan Report -- Ministry of Forests

The Forest Service established three long-term goals in 2002/03 to provide overall strategic direction to the ministry in achievement of its mission and vision:

The ministry uses key outcome indicators to track high-level progress towards its goals. The key outcome indicators measure societal, landbase or stakeholder results or changes in conditions or behaviours. Although the Ministry of Forests can influence these outcomes, responsibility for their achievement is shared with others.

The framework below shows how the goals of the ministry are linked to its activities through seven core business areas. Each core business area is linked to at least one of the three goals. The core business areas of Compliance and Enforcement and Forest Investment support two of the three goals.

Under each core business area are structured the associated objectives and strategies of the ministry. To indicate how successful the ministry is in achieving these objectives and strategies during 2003/04, corporate performance measure targets have been assigned. Summaries of the objectives and strategies, and ministry performance by core business area are provided in the "Report on Results" section.

Report on Results

This section reports on the ministry's accomplishments and performance measure achievements under each goal, in the context of its core business areas, objectives, and strategies. The objectives are concise results-oriented statements of what service results the ministry intends to achieve in the short-term. The strategies outline the actions that were planned for 2003/04 towards achievement of the objectives and the goals. The performance measures were chosen to indicate the degree of success the ministry has in achieving these objectives and strategies. The accountability for the performance measures and targets resides fully with the Ministry of Forests.

Performance at a Glance

87% (25 out of 29 measures)		13% (4 out of 29 measures)
8 performance measures over-achieved	17 performance measures achieved or substantially achieved	3 performance measures partially achieved	1 performance measure not achieved

The ministry established 35 corporate performance measures and targets for 2003/04 to evaluate ministry performance in its core business areas. Four of the measures were substantially changed during the year, and two other measures, both requiring client surveys, had the surveys postponed until 2004/05. Of the remaining 29 measures, 87% (25) had targets that were substantially achieved (>80% to 95%), achieved (95% to 105%) or over-achieved (>105%). Thirteen per cent had targets that were partially achieved (50 to 80%) or not achieved (<50%). Explanations of each measure and its performance target achievements are provided in the following sections.

For quick reference, Appendix 3 illustrates the links between goals, objectives, strategies and performance results in a summary format.

Deregulation

One of the major New Era commitments made by the government was to reduce regulatory burden and red tape in British Columbia by one-third within three years. Deregulation is a key component of the government's effort to revitalize the economy and ensure a globally competitive climate.

In November 2001, the Minister of State for Deregulation sent out a request that each ministry prepare and submit a three-year deregulation plan by January 31, 2002. These plans set out how each ministry will review its existing regulatory burden to eliminate unnecessary requirements or reform requirements that remain necessary. The Ministry of Forests deregulation plan set a target of 33 per cent reduction in regulatory requirements by fiscal year 2004/05.

The Ministry of Forests cumulative deregulation target for 2003/04 was a 23 per cent reduction in regulatory requirements. The ministry achieved this deregulation target on January 31, 2004 by bringing into force the Forest and Range Practices Act and its regulations. By focusing on practices on the ground, the regulatory requirements from the existing Forest Practices Code were reduced by 55 per cent. The Ministry of Forests overall regulatory count dropped to about 50 per cent, exceeding not only the deregulation target of 23 per cent for fiscal year 2003/04, but exceeding the final 2004/05 target of 33 per cent reduction in regulatory requirements.