Annual Service Plan Reports 2004/05 -- Ministry of Transportation

The ministry's work reflects larger government priorities, and supports most strongly the overall government strategic goal of "a strong and vibrant provincial economy" through the accomplishment of its own established vision and goals.

The ministry works toward achieving a fully integrated transportation system that advances economic and social growth, and moves people and goods within British Columbia and to markets beyond. Meeting the following goals will help to achieve this vision.

Goal 1: Key transportation infrastructure is improved to drive economic growth and trade.

By ensuring that transportation in British Columbia is efficient, the ministry contributes to economic development and community growth. New or expanded facilities can unlock economic opportunities. Strategic highway improvements keep trade flowing smoothly. Congestion-free routes and reliable access to gateways keep the cost of shipping goods minimized.

An integrated transportation system, made up of diverse transportation modes, supports B.C.'s economy by allowing shippers to use the most cost-effective way of moving goods at each stage of travel.

Goal 2: B.C. is provided with a safe and reliable highway system.

British Columbia's economic health depends on safe and reliable highway transportation for trade, tourism and personal mobility. All highways require ongoing rehabilitation and maintenance to keep them open, safe and reliable. Regular attention to maintenance adds many years to the life of a highway, making the taxpayers' investment in transportation go further.

Goal 3: B.C.'s transportation industries become more competitive.

Modern industries control costs by minimizing the amount of goods in inventory and delivering them "just in time" when needed. Efficient transfer points between different modes of transportation, such as rail and road, are essential to holding down costs and remaining competitive in world markets.

Healthy air, marine and rail industries also are vital to our province's economy. Reducing unnecessary regulatory burden and red tape builds a strong competitive environment for these industries and all the businesses that rely on them.

Goal 4: Excellent customer service is achieved and the ministry is recognized as a good employer.

The way the ministry conducts its everyday business directly affects stakeholders and highway users. Ministry employees continually strive to improve and are committed to ensuring that customers are satisfied.

The ministry provides its employees with the best possible working environment, the right tools to succeed, and the respect and freedom needed to excel. In this way, the Ministry of Transportation will continue to be known for the high quality of its people and their results.

Report on Results

The ministry has developed many strategies to meet its objectives and advance its high-level goals. To make sure that these strategies are effective, the ministry sets measurable performance targets for each fiscal year. This report assesses how well the ministry has met these targets.

Performance measures provide a concrete way for the public to judge the effectiveness and quality of the ministry's service. They allow the ministry to learn from its successes and find areas where new approaches are needed. The ministry is committed to providing reliable and useful information that gives an accurate picture of the ministry's performance.

The performance measures below are grouped by the goals and objectives they serve.

Synopsis of Ministry Results

Goal 1

Key transportation infrastructure is improved to drive economic growth and trade.

Core Business Area

Objective 1

Key Strategies

Performance Measure: Customer Survey

Performance Measure	2004/05 Target	2004/05 Actual	2004/05 Variance
Annual survey of RTAC members' satisfaction with ministry consideration of RTAC recommendations	Under redevelopment	Under redevelopment	n/a

The RTACs provide annual reports to the minister documenting their activities and recommendations. These reports identify regional needs and transportation priorities, in order to give regions a greater say in their transportation needs and planning. The customer survey measures the extent to which RTAC members feel their recommendations are given reasonable consideration in ministry policy and investment decision-making.

Given budget constraints and policy issues, the ministry may not be able to implement all of the RTAC recommendations, particularly in the short term. Where recommendations are not feasible, the ministry provides the RTACs with explanations.

The performance measure and target were changed during development of the
2005/06 – 2007/08 Service Plan. The previous performance measure for 2004/05 was documented input from RTACs and the target was to evaluate committee effectiveness. The performance measure was changed in order to provide an objective and quantifiable measure of RTAC effectiveness.

In February/March 2004, a survey of RTAC members and chairs was undertaken to determine how well they felt the process was working. The results showed that overall 74 per cent were satisfied with the RTAC process and 73 per cent agreed that RTACs would positively influence transportation decisions. The survey results will be used as a benchmark for future surveys.

Objective 2

Key Strategies

Performance Measure 1: Investment Capital Leveraged

This performance measure includes contributions at the time of construction from non- provincial treasury sources, such as municipalities, Crown corporations, First Nations and the private sector. It does not include contributions from the federal government, which are measured separately. The performance measure also includes the net value captured from land sales. The leveraging means that for every provincial dollar invested, British Columbians receive $1.70 of total investment.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual¹	Variance
Private investment capital leveraged through public-private partnerships and defrayed or reduced costs from efficient land use	2004/05	$20.0 M	$26.8 M	$6.8 M
	2003/04		$24.5 M
	2002/03		$15.5 M

The contribution/recovery from partners and the land contribution are measured against the gross cost of capital projects.

Performance Measure 2: Federal Funding Leveraged

Funding from the federal government helps British Columbia achieve longer term sustainable financing for transportation improvements. The leveraging means that for every provincial dollar of investment, the federal government invests an additional 42 cents.

Performance Measure	2004/05 Target	2004/05 Actual	2004/05 Variance
Federal Funding Investment Leveraged. Capital investment from federal government programs	$79 M	$40 M	($39 M)

The actual figures refer to the amount of federal funding confirmed through signed B.C./Canada contribution agreements.

Fiscal recoveries under B.C./Canada contribution agreements require the projects to be implemented within an agreed-upon time frame.

The recoveries are based on claims processed and accruals through the BC Ministry of Transportation and Transport Canada online administration system.

It is worth noting that the federal government has committed $450 million for the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver (RAV) Rapid Transit Line. This amount is not included in the performance measure above, so overall federal funding is higher than stated in the performance measure.

Performance Measure 3: Capital Project Performance

Accurate budgets and schedules let the ministry make effective use of the public's investment in transportation.

Performance Measures	2004/05 Target	2004/05 Actual	2004/05 Variance
Percentage of capital projects completed on or under budget	100%	100%	0%
Percentage of capital projects completed on or ahead of schedule	100%	92%	8%

All projects under the capital program are aggregated each fiscal year to compare the planned cost of the projects to the actual cost and the scheduled progress of the projects to the actual progress. Total actual expenditures are compared to total approved budgets. Scheduled completion dates are compared to actual completion dates.

Very reliable. Officially approved budgets and schedules are compared to actual expenditures and actual completion dates.

The variance in scheduling is due primarily to delays in significant property acquisitions and some weather-related delays. Regardless, the ministry is working to better determine the factors that may impact project budgets and schedules in order to provide appropriate contingencies for them.

Objective 3

Key Strategy

Implement cost-effective highway upgrades that improve traffic flow, reduce delay-causing crashes and add new capacity, using partnership cost-sharing where feasible.

Performance Measure: Level of traffic congestion for urban highways

This performance measure examines how often vehicles in urban British Columbia drive through a congested highway segment. The performance measure focuses on urban highways, as congestion generally is not a problem on rural highways.

A vehicle-kilometre is a single kilometre driven by one vehicle. If 10 vehicles travel through the same 2 kilometres of congested highway, this counts as 20 vehicle-kilometres travelled in congested conditions.

Traffic count stations monitor 12 per cent of the total urban highway length, a sample which the ministry uses to represent the entire urban system.

A highway segment is considered congested whenever traffic volumes rise over 80 per cent of the segment's peak hourly volume that year.

This method accounts for changing traffic volumes from year to year, changing traffic flows as a result of highway improvements or problems, and differences between urban and rural conditions. Ministry traffic count station data is quite reliable.

There are many factors outside of ministry control that affect urban congestion, such as changes in population, levels of vehicle ownership, ride-sharing behaviour, and the status of adjacent non-provincial routes.

The variance is not significant given the large amount of data used in calculating this measure and the many factors that affect urban congestion.

Objective 4

Key Strategy

Improve mobility and reliability and reduce bottlenecks on major urban and rural trade corridors, using partnership cost-sharing where feasible.

Performance Measure: Commercial trucking travel speed

The speed of 1,500 heavy long-distance trucks was monitored as they travelled on primary provincial numbered highways during August to October 2004.

Performance Measure	2004/05 Target	2004/05 Actual	2004/05 Variance
Average commercial trucking travel speed between major economic gateways	80 km/hr	71 km/hr	(9 km/hr)

The data comes from a private firm which provides tracking services to the trucking industry through the use of satellite technology. Truck locations were recorded each hour and whenever the ignition was switched off.

The overall average speed of 71 km per hour was calculated by dividing the total distance travelled by the total time elapsed. The speed includes mandatory stops at brake check areas and weigh scales, as well as delays due to the effects of grades and congestion.

The measured speeds ranged from 26 km per hour in congested urban areas to 83 km per hour in uncongested rural areas.

The data is very reliable in terms of highway coverage (6,142 km), data quantity (over 100,000 samples comprising over 7 million truck-kilometres travelled), temporal conditions (constant data from the peak summer and shoulder autumn seasons) and location (capturing both urban and rural conditions). Unreasonably low speeds were screened out.

In the winter months, the average speeds may be higher because of lower rural traffic volumes, but weather conditions would also affect the results.

The province's difficult terrain and the influence of urbanized areas make the minimum 80 km per hour average travel speed an ambitious target. The ministry is improving truck travel times through significant investments on provincial primary numbered highways.

Goal 2

Core Business Area

Objective 1

Key Strategy

Performance Measure 1: Maintenance Cost

The cost of maintenance is a substantial portion of the ministry budget. The cost per lane kilometre indicates how well the ministry is containing these costs.

The majority of the cost consists of the actual expenditures on road and bridge maintenance contracts, pavement marking contracts and electrical maintenance contracts. The figure also includes an estimate of other maintenance costs, such as the cost of administering the contracts and the cost of maintenance activities performed by ministry staff, such as avalanche control.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual	Variance
Maintenance cost per lane kilometre	2004/05	$4,110	$4,036	$74
	2003/04		$4,090
	2002/03		$4,159
	2001/02		$4,124
	2000/01		$3,977

The total allocated cost is divided by the total number of lane kilometres of road maintained.

Data reliability is very high. Only one per cent of these costs are estimates. The remainder is actual costs from the financial reports.

Key Strategy

Implement the Contractor Assessment Program (CAP), a new and improved procedure for auditing the delivery of contracted highway maintenance activities.

Performance Measure 2: Contractor Assessment Program

Local and regional audits verify maintenance contractors' compliance with the contract terms. As well, key stakeholders in each service area are asked to rate their level of satisfaction with road maintenance. The results are combined to give an overall contractor assessment.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual	Variance
Contractor Assessment Program	2004	91%	93%	2%
	2003		92%
	2002		92%

	Local Assessment	Regional Assessment	Stakeholder Assessment	Total
Winter performance	30%	18%	12%	60%
Summer performance	20%	12%	8%	40%
Total	50%	30%	20%	100%

The CAP applies to the 2004 results only; results are included for the 18 areas where these contracts are in effect and where there was sufficient data to assess performance.

The rating represents full year (winter and summer) results for 8 of the areas, and summer results only for 10 of the areas.

The results from 2002 and 2003 are from the Quality Assurance Program, the precursor to the CAP.

The majority of the results are for summer only, which partly explains the higher assessment. It is more difficult for contractors to obtain a high assessment in winter as stakeholder expectations are higher and planning is more difficult.

Objective 2

The main highway system is systematically preserved and replaced at the lowest life-cycle cost.

Key Strategy

Performance Measure 1: Pavement Condition for Main Highways

The Pavement Condition Rating is a measure of the overall surface condition of a paved road that takes into account roughness experienced by the road user and standard engineering measurements of surface distress, such as cracks, rutting and surface defects. Scores of 70 per cent or higher qualify as good or excellent.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual	Variance
Pavement condition. Percentage of kilometres on main highways where condition is good or excellent	2004/05	76%	75%	(1%)
	2003/04		75%
	2002/03		75%

The ministry contracts out the collection of pavement surface condition data to contractors who use high-tech pavement evaluation vehicles that take detailed measurements at 50 metre intervals.

The pavement surface condition of primary highways is surveyed every two years. Selected secondary highways are surveyed every three years.

The data is collected using proven survey methodology, very specialized vehicles equipped with sophisticated monitoring equipment, and stringent quality control and quality assurance specifications.

The performance measure shows the findings of the most recent survey of the network, and cannot be interpreted as a depiction of the entire highway system in any one year. The trend over years is a better indicator of highway condition than the actual value in any one year.

Performance Measure 2: Bridge Condition

Ministry staff regularly assesses the condition of bridges and their components and calculates an average ranking of bridge condition.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual	Variance
Bridge condition. Percentage of bridges where condition is good or excellent	2004/05	80%	85%	5%
	2003/04		85%
	2002/03		82%

Ministry Bridge Area Managers perform inspections throughout the year. Each bridge is inspected approximately once a year. Results are recorded in a database.

Bridge inspections follow published guidelines for component condition rating to ensure consistent results.

Bridge Area Managers are certified in bridge inspection through the joint ministry and British Columbia Institute of Technology bridge inspection course.

The targets were set in 1999, before the new bridges associated with the Vancouver Island Highway Project were entered into the ministry inventory. All of these new bridges were in good condition, raising the overall percentage of bridges in good condition. As well, the rehabilitation program has focused investment on bridge replacements and rehabilitation.

Key Strategy

Rehabilitate the main highways according to the ministry's long-term strategy and using the most cost-effective methods.

Performance Measure 3: Number of Lane Kilometres Resurfaced

Resurfacing extends the life of a highway and makes the road easier to drive. In addition to resurfacing treatments, such as hot-in-place recycling, this performance measure also includes the first time hard surfacing of gravel roads.

The performance measure counts all individual travel lanes that have been resurfaced. For example, resurfacing 15 kilometres of a two-lane highway is recorded as 30 lane kilometres.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual	Variance
Highway Rehabilitation: Number of lane kilometres resurfaced	2004/05	2,500	2,765	265 lane km or 10.6%
	2003/04		2,794
	2002/03		2,165

The ministry accomplished more work than planned with the available resources, thanks to successful cost containment, risk management, early tendering, and close project monitoring.

Objective 3

Key Strategy

Increase annual investment in Heartlands road reconstruction by $75 million in 2003/04 through 2005/06.

Performance Measure 1: Surface Condition of Heartlands Roads

The ministry has made it a priority to dramatically improve the condition of Heartlands roads, which are vital to many communities, as well as the tourism and resource industries. Few of these roads were in good condition before the ministry began this program.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual	Variance
Surface Condition of Heartlands roads. Percentage of kilometres where condition is good or excellent	2004/05	40%	44.5%	4.5%
	2003/04		39%
	2002/03		34%

Independent contractors measure surface distress and roughness for paved surfaces on a four-year cycle. Representative samples of gravel surfaces are also measured.

Highways that are improved through base reconstruction, first time hard surfacing, or other treatments have their surface condition measured in the field during program delivery. These measurements will be included until 2006 to provide additional data, while the automated condition surveys are underway.

The surveys are designed to provide accurate and representative data that will allow the ministry to analyze the side road network as a whole. The data is collected using specialized vehicles with sophisticated monitoring equipment, proven survey methodology and stringent quality control and quality assurance specifications.

The performance measure shows the findings of the most recent survey of the side road network, and cannot be interpreted as a depiction of the entire side road network system in any one year. The trend over years is a better indicator of side road network condition than the actual value in any one year.

The first complete data set will be available in fall 2006. This will allow the ministry to set a reliable benchmark for the condition of the side road network.

Investment in the side road system improved the surface condition of 1,853 lane kilometres, representing 5.5 per cent of the side road network.

The recent road survey found a relatively high percentage of roads to be in good condition, which also contributed to the variance. However, the Kootenays have not yet been surveyed and are known to have many roads in worse condition than the provincial average. When these roads are surveyed, the overall measurement of roads in good condition will drop slightly.

Performance Measure 2: Number of lane kilometres treated for improvement — Heartlands Roads

The ministry is improving Heartlands roads with a variety of treatments, such as strengthening or reconstructing the road base, resurfacing with gravel, or first time hard surfacing.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual	Variance
Number of lane kilometres improved — Heartlands roads	2004/05	870	939	69 lane km or 8%
	2003/04		894
	2002/03		870

Reliable distance measuring devices are used in the field, and the distances are verified in the contract language of the projects.

The ministry was able to gravel more roads in the north than planned due principally to clustering of projects, cooperative weather and improved monitoring.

Objective 4

Key Strategies

Performance Measure 1: Crash reduction after construction on safety improvement capital projects

This performance measure will consist of separate studies. Each study will compare before and-after crash data related to the construction safety project. The studies will typically look at the number of crashes, fatalities, crash rate, and crash severity from the five years before construction and a period of at least one year after construction.

The ministry has a set of safety projects to evaluate in this way. However, as these projects have only recently been completed, only six months of post-construction data is available. The ministry intends to wait for one full year after each project's in-service date before analyzing the project's performance.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual	Variance
Crash reduction after construction on safety improvement Capital Projects	2004/05	Under development	Under development	n/a
	2003/04		Program initiated

As new safety-related projects advance from the unfunded project inventory to the Transportation Investment Plan, they will be added to the Service Plan for tracking.

The initial set of 2003/04 safety projects includes all projects with severe safety issues and all Okanagan Corridor safety projects. (There were too few Okanagan Corridor safety projects to segregate further without jeopardizing the principle of representative sample size.)

When police attend an automobile accident, the data they collect is sent to ICBC. ICBC removes any personal details and provides the data to the ministry.

A long time frame is needed to have confidence in the achieved safety benefits. After one year there may be sufficient data to get an indication; after three years there should be sufficient data to see a trend; and after five years the trend can be confirmed.

Currently the data reliability is low, as the set of 21 safety projects chosen for performance measurement does not include any that were completed over one year ago, the minimum period for useful conclusions.

Key Strategy

Performance Measure 2: Highway Closures

The ministry tracks all unplanned closures longer than 30 minutes on numbered highways.

Based on past experience, the ministry expects approximately 2,500 hours of unplanned closures each year. The ministry has little control over unplanned closures, as most are the result of accidents or natural causes; however, preventative maintenance does help prevent many closures.

The ministry minimizes closures by quickly clearing debris and collisions, using rock scaling and planned avalanches to prevent slides and uncontrolled avalanches, working with police to minimize the duration of closures after accidents, and making physical improvements to the highway system.

Performance Measure	Year ¹	Target	Actual	Variance
Annual duration in hours of unplanned highway closures greater than 30 minutes for all numbered highways	2004	2,500	1,802	698
	2003		3,723
	2002/03		1,643
	2001/02		608

Data comes from road and bridge maintenance contractors, the RCMP and ministry staff.

Actual results have been changed to reflect the calendar year rather than the fiscal year starting with 2003.

Data providers may not always know the exact time a closure began, but they use the best estimate that could be established at the time of the incident.

Inconsistencies with methodology, reporting, and classification make data reliability a concern for the years before 2003. The data for 2001/02 and 2002/03 represent a best estimate.

The 2004 winter had less severe storms than other years, and no forest fires that affected highway use as they did in 2003.

Objective 5

Key Strategies

Performance Measure: Risk management plan

A risk management plan is a process for identifying and mitigating events that may have a significant impact on ministry costs or the achievement of goals and objectives.

Performance Measure	2004/05 Target	2004/05 Actual	2004/05 Variance
Risk management plan	Completion of the plan	Plan modified. Additional pilots planned for 2005/06.	See below

In 2004/05, the initial phase of the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) plan was developed and implemented in the ministry. ERM processes were introduced to four separate program areas on a pilot basis. The pilot results were then used to develop a broader pilot implementation of the ERM process in the ministry.

Additional ERM pilots will be implemented in 2005/06 to more fully assess how ERM could be effectively applied in the ministry.

Goal 3

Core Business Areas

Transportation Improvements, Highway Operations, Passenger Transportation Regulation.

Objective 1

A one-third reduction in the provincial regulatory burden on the public, industry and stakeholders.

Key Strategies

Performance Measure: Reduction in legislation, regulations and policies

As of June 2004, the ministry had cut its regulatory requirements by 41 per cent from the June 2001 baseline, well in excess of the 33 per cent target. Core highway legislation was consolidated into a new Transportation Act, which eliminated prescriptive requirements and adopted a results-based approach. The Highway (Industrial) Act was renamed the Industrial Roads Act and was significantly streamlined. The Railway Act was modernized and revised, and the Riverbank Protection Act was repealed.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual	Variance
One third reduction in legislation, regulations and policies	2002/03 – 2004/05	33%	41%	8%

Progress was measured on the government-wide database that tracks all changes to the baseline count. The database is administered by the Smart Regulation Office of the Ministry of Small Business and Economic Development.

Objective 2

Simplified licensing and processing procedures for commercial transportation carriers, with safety as the primary criterion.

Key Strategy

Performance Measure: Reduction in the number of motor carrier regulatory requirements

As of June 2004, the Passenger Transportation Board had cut its regulatory requirements by 43 per cent from the June 2001 baseline, well in excess of the 33 per cent target. The Motor Carrier Act was replaced by a new Passenger Transportation Act and regulations, which has allowed the commercial passenger transportation industry to be more competitive while still protecting and improving services. The new regulations continue to streamline the process and allow operators to obtain licences and renewals in a timely fashion.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual	Variance
One third reduction in the number of motor carrier regulatory requirements	2002/03 – 2004/05	33%	43%	10%

Objective 3

Reduction or elimination of third party regulations and policies that impede B.C.'s ability to compete with other jurisdictions in the transportation market.

Key Strategy

Work with the Vancouver International Airport Authority (YVRAA) to encourage the federal government to adopt a policy of liberalized international air agreements that would allow more carriers to stop in Vancouver and either pick up or drop off passengers and goods.

Performance Measure: Progress toward implementation of an amended Canada-U.S. air travel agreement

This performance measure is non-traditional in that its achievement is entirely under the control of a third party (the federal government). Nevertheless, a full open skies air services agreement with the U.S. is critical to the growth of Vancouver International Airport (YVR) as a gateway to/from North America. Significant economic opportunities for British Columbia and Canada are at stake and the ministry chooses to keep this as a priority initiative.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual
Progress toward implementation of an amended Canada-U.S. air service agreement	2004/05	Implement Memorandum of Cooperation strategy and report on results.	Canada and U.S. agreed to commence exploratory talks.
	2003/04		Memorandum of Cooperation with YVR Airport Authority.

Results are measured in terms of milestone events, such as: the development of a Memorandum of Cooperation with YVR Airport Authority that forms the basis of presenting business case arguments to the federal government; an agreement by Canada and the U.S. to conduct talks; consultation by Canada to prepare the negotiating mandate; and commencement of formal negotiations.

The ministry developed a position paper on federal air policies, which was presented to the federal Standing Committee on Transport in April 2005. Persistent lobbying by the ministry and industry stakeholders will continue, to ensure exploratory talks commence early in 2005/06.

Goal 4

Excellent customer service is achieved and the ministry is recognized as a good employer.

Core Business Area

Objective 1

Key Strategies

Performance Measure: Customer satisfaction survey

Ministry staff conducted 1,321 surveys throughout the province in 2004 to evaluate overall performance and quality of service as perceived by stakeholders and highway users of B.C.

Performance Measure	2004/05 Target	2004/05 Actual	2004/05 Variance
Customer Satisfaction Survey. Highway users' satisfaction with existing ministry services and delivery processes, rated on a scale of 1 to 10	7.0	6.9	(0.1)

The targets reflect a weighted average of several areas, and the ministry is targeting its efforts in areas that indicate a higher need for improvement.

Recent survey results suggest that streamlining business processes will increase satisfaction and also suggest that the ministry is succeeding in its efforts to improve service quality.

Canada-wide satisfaction with provincial/territorial government services averaged 6.5 out of 10, according to a recent survey commissioned by the Institute for Citizen Centered Service. Canada-wide satisfaction with road construction, maintenance and snow removal services was 4.7 out of 10.

Survey results are measured through tabulation and analysis of results from our annual questionnaire, which is conducted by ministry staff and administered to highway users and stakeholder groups.

The survey is statistically significant and considered accurate 19 times out of 20.

Objective 2

Employees are provided with the support, training and working environment they need to excel at their jobs.

Strategy

Implement the ministry's Human Resource Management/People Plan to enhance productivity and employee satisfaction.

Performance Measure: Employee Satisfaction

The ministry has worked diligently for the last three years to achieve employee satisfaction with organizational improvements within the workplace. An employee satisfaction survey given to all ministry employees helps gauge the ministry's success.

Performance Measure	Year	Target	Actual	Variance
Employee satisfaction survey: Survey of employee satisfaction with organizational improvements	2004/05	67%	64%	(3%)
	2003/04		62%
	2002/03¹		Benchmark

An independent party administered an employee satisfaction survey to all ministry employees. BC Stats analyzed and interpreted the survey results. The conclusions were shared with all levels of ministry staff.

The data generated by these employee surveys is considered quite reliable and a good indicator of employee satisfaction, as feedback from each employee is solicited.

Last year's response rate increased 15 per cent to an overall response rate of 74 per cent. The key questions relating to employee satisfaction had a 95 per cent confidence level.

This year's survey results were three per cent below the target. The ministry is focusing its efforts on the areas requiring further attention. The ministry is creating an Employee Advisory Forum which will draw members from all levels of the ministry. The forum will help develop the 2005/06 high level Human Resource Plan which will replace the existing People Plan.