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

Objective 7.1: Ministry legislation will align with government and ministry policy direction.

In 2003/04, the Ministry of Forests managed a very large policy and legislation agenda in support of achieving government direction for the ministry's two primary goals.

Strategy	Performance Measure	2003/04 Target	2003/04 Actual	Variance	Achievement
Prepare legislation required to implement government and ministry policy	Number of key legislation documents prepared for government approval	4	9	+5	Achieved

The ministry prepares key legislation documents associated with forest policy changes and amendments to current legislation as needed to facilitate forest policy changes.

2003/04 was a significant year for the ministry's legislation program. A total of 96 Orders in Council were needed to manage the significant agenda for the ministry. The nine key documents prepared in 2003/04 included four new Acts and five significant Amendment Acts. The extensive changes required to the Forest Act were achieved through four separate bills (Bill 27, 29, 44 and 45) rather than through one as anticipated in the target. This change largely accounts for the apparent over-achievement in the number of documents prepared.

In addition, 11 Forest and Range Practices Act regulations were developed and brought into force, effective January 31, 2004.

In 2003/04, the ministry was still engaged in workforce adjustment with significant numbers of staff learning new job functions. The ministry began a number of initiatives to aid employees in adjusting to the organizational changes. A ministry wide health and wellness program that encompasses all aspects of health and wellness was initiated with the intent to reduce absences due to stress-related illnesses. Work also began on a ministry succession plan to begin to mitigate some of the future retirement pressures facing the organization and to assist employees in planning for their future within the ministry.

With workforce adjustment concluding, the ministry executive and senior managers have begun to focus on building and developing the ministry into becoming a top performing organization. The major accomplishments in this area have been the initiation of employee performance and development planning which aligns employees' work, learning and career development with the goals and objectives of the organization. During the year, the organization committed to engaging employees to review the vision of the ministry, developing leadership potential, shifting to a continuous learning organization, developing an integrated health and wellness program, and developing and implementing a workforce/succession planning framework.

Strategy	Performance Measure	2003/04 Target	2003/04 Actual	Variance	Achievement
Implement succession planning and training to attract and retain highly qualified staff	Average number of training hours per year per employee	≥29	20	–9	Partially achieved
	Per cent of critical positions with current competency profiles and succession plans in place	50%	52%	+2%	Achieved
	Per cent of staff satisfied with their employment with the ministry	>59%	Survey postponed to 2004/05	N/A	N/A

The average number of training hours measures the amount of time spent on training and commitment to employee development. The measure is calculated from the Corporate HR Information and Payroll System (CHIPS). A substantial training effort was undertaken in 2003/04 to prepare staff, forest industry and consultants for the changes under the new Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA). Over 4,000 people attended 2.5 days of FRPA training within a short time frame.

The shortfall in training reported for 2003/04 is attributed to budgetary constraints, to the significant fire control efforts that took staff away from regular duties, and to data management issues. Due to administrative staff changes, new online training initiatives and reorganization, not all of the data on training taken could be entered into CHIPS in a timely manner.

The percentage of critical positions with competency profiles measures and identifies the level of capacity (subject matter and behavioural competencies) within the ministry for "critical" positions. It also identifies gaps that will need to be addressed in succession plans. The measure is calculated from the HR Strategic Database.

The per cent of staff satisfied with their employment measures the overall level of organizational wellness and employee satisfaction with their employment in the ministry. It is calculated from the annual Workplace Survey/Questionnaire. In 2003/04 the ministry decided to delay the survey until the fall 2005 to redirect effort into rebuilding and revitalizing the ministry. The ministry's ability to move ahead with its revitalization strategies was balanced with the requirement of finalizing workforce adjustment in the fall of 2003. The ministry Executive expects the fall 2005 survey to provide important information to validate that revitalization work is on track.

Objective 7.3: Regularly assess the performance of the organization and incorporate a culture of efficiency and positive change to ensure achievement of our mandate.

Strategy	Performance Measure	2001/02 Actual	2002/03 Actual	2003/04 Target	2003/04 Actual	2003/04 Variance	Achievement
Fully implement an integrated performance management and budgeting framework in the ministry	Per cent of corporate performance measure targets achieved	90%	86%	95%	87%	–8%	Substan-tially achieved
	Per cent of expenditure targets achieved	100%	100%	100%	100%	0%	Achieved

These two measures are intended to provide an assessment of the ministry's achievement of performance and financial targets together. If either target was not achieved or only partially achieved this would indicate issues in the integration of the performance management framework. Substantial achievement of both reflects that the framework is becoming more integrated, although ongoing work is required to achieve this strategy.

The per cent of corporate performance measures targets achieved is a summary measure of the ministry's overall performance. It excludes projections for key outcome indicators. In 2003/04, 87 per cent, or 25 of the ministry's 29 corporate performance measures were substantially achieved, achieved or overachieved (>80% of target), three measures were partially achieved (between 50% and 80% of target), and one was not achieved (less than 50% of target).

Expenditure or budget targets are assigned to the Assistant Deputy Minister for each Division. All Divisions achieved their approved budget targets (as revised throughout the year). Overall, the ministry achieved its financial targets, with expenditures within 1 per cent of the approved spending plan.

Strategy	Performance Measure	2001/02 Actual	2002/03 Actual	2003/04 Target	2003/04 Actual	2003/04 Variance1	Achievement
Refine ministry business processes and practices to meet the highest standards of efficiency and effectiveness	Per cent of business areas redesigned to align with the refocused mandate	N/A	40%	75%	Measure dis-continued in 2003/04	N/A	N/A

The intent of introducing this performance measure in 2002/03 was to reflect the 3-year transition to the ministry's refocused mandate resulting from the government's Core Business Review. The goal was to review and redesign 100 per cent of ministry business areas over the three years from 2002/03 to 2004/05.

However, in 2003/04 it became apparent that there was a greater need to focus Continuous Improvement processes around the ministry's major revitalization projects, and this was implemented. The above measure therefore became irrelevant and the ministry stopped tracking its achievement. The continuous improvement initiative has been incorporated into the ministry's regular business practice and implementing best practices and improving business processes will be ongoing.

Strategy	Performance Measure	2001/02 Actual	2002/03 Actual	2003/04 Target	2003/04 Actual	2003/04 Variance	Achievement
Maximize the benefits derived from the application of technology to ministry business	Increase in the number of major client services available electronically	N/A	3	2	3	+1	Over-achieved

Electronic services are those provided to external clients via an Internet link. In 2003/04 the automated transmission of appraisal data from licensees (the Electronic Commerce Appraisal System or ECAS), the automation of billing inputs in the Harvest Billing system (HBS) and the automation of seed requests from the tree seed center (SPAR) were added.

ECAS went into full production on April 1, 2004. At early May 2004, there were 3,000 registered users (major licensees, BC Timber Sales and MOF staff) and approximately 500 appraisal data submissions had been received and processed with minimal staff intervention. Historically these submissions would have required MOF staff to manually receive, review, and input into the General Appraisal System (GAS). Early feedback indicates that the application has created efficiency where it was previously lacking and that both industry and MOF staff have embraced it.

HBS went into production in December 2003. The ministry has been receiving scale data electronically since March 2003. At the end of 2003/04, HBS was receiving approximately 55 per cent of harvested volumes electronically through HBS. HBS is invoicing industry electronically and many industry and public clients' now use HBS to extract harvest information on a regular basis.

SPAR was fully deployed in May 2003. It provides external and internal clients with direct online access to the provincial registry of forest tree seed and a comprehensive seedling ordering system for meeting annual reforestation needs. At the end of 2003/04, approximately 330 external clients are using SPAR, and had entered 3,366 seedling requests for the year. SPAR also supports all gene resource management activities of the ministry, tracks performance measure data, and provides information to support timber supply analysis. The Forests Genetics Council (FGC) also relies on SPAR to provide summary information to enable the FGC to meet its strategic goals.

Goal 3: Effective and Responsive Forest Manager