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Given that the Department has committed to an ecosystem approach, the lead of the Priority Ecosystems (PE) OPG along with the leads of the other ecosystem OPPs including GBAP should:
Establish clarity on strategic planning and structural issues of the ecosystem approach. This should include clear articulation of the roles and responsibilities across OPGs, OPPs and unbundled OPPs, direction setting, methodology, outcomes, results structure and communications. The results should be reported to the Ecosystem Sustainability Board for approval by January 2008.
Undertake a management review of all ecosystem initiatives to ensure appropriate performance measurement, reporting and associated accountability. This should be reported to the Ecosystem Sustainability Board for approval by December 2007.
The PE OPG and, specifically, the GBAP OPP need to seek greater precision on the vision as well as a tightened operational definition of what specific results are being sought by using an ecosystem approach, and put the vision and expected results into an operational program. This needs to be completed prior to consideration of the initiation of any new program development.
As well, the unbundling exercise has resulted in many projects no longer being reported as part of the GBAP OPP. The results of those now unconnected projects still do need to be monitored for results delivery. The need for the current structure and role of regional ecosystem initiatives as well as their functions with respect to the coordination of unbundled ecosystem initiatives' activities/results therefore needs to be closely re-examined. Given that the Department has a complete results-based management system, the unbundling exercise leaves only the governance issue under the PE OPG. The governance role with respect to the individual ecosystem OPPs and the OPG needs to be examined for possible streamlining and efficiencies.
The OPG should examine these results for the GBAP initiative in light of the other five ecosystem initiatives under its direction. This will be important given the development of a National Ecosystem Framework in EC (ES Board Deck March 2007) and fundamental to the design of departmental RBM programs. There is active discussion of an interim two-year extension of the current ecosystem initiatives followed by a renewal process in 2009-2010. However, the conclusions and recommendations of this report need close scrutiny and reflection in the context of that approach.
Over a year ago, the Environmental Sustainability (ES) Board called for a new EC ecosystem approach and a Priority Ecosystem Initiative Management Framework.
Under the leadership of the PE OPG, an Ecosystem Approach as a management model to environmental management was articulated in 2006 and presented to both ES Board (January 2007) and the Weather and Environmental Services (WES) Board (May 2007). The implementation of this approach is starting and will be done on a continuous basis using EC's management structure and planning process
The PE OPG is also working, with participation from other OPGs, on a Priority Ecosystem Initiative Management Framework. The purpose of the framework is to:
It is our intent that the framework, once developed, be applied to existing Ecosystem Initiatives, and to potential new ones, by March 2008. This should lead to a more common approach to selection, design and delivery of PEIs in the Department.
As they are progressively implemented, we are confident that these two initiatives should address most of the observed weaknesses related to recommendation 1(a): roles, responsibilities, direction setting, methodology, etc.
With regard to recommendation 1(b) a process has already been launched with the assistance of the Evaluation Division of the Audit and Evaluation Branch (A&E), and will be implemented to provide assurance to ES Board members that the issues noted in the evaluation with respect to the GBAP (presence of a management framework, appropriate information on performance, partners and projects) are being considered and addressed to the extent that they apply to other PEIs. This report will be provided to the ES Board by the end of October 2007.
Once available, the OPP leads will also be actively involved in the application of the PEI Management Framework to the existing PEIs (March 2008) and we strongly believe that this will have a very positive effect towards strengthening, overall, the governance and effectiveness of PEIs.
The lead of the GBAP OPP, with support and coordination from the lead of the Priority Ecosystems OPG, should undertake actions to urgently deal with improvements to the planning, measuring, and reporting systems outlined below by December 2007 and report those to the Ecosystem Sustainability Board for approval.
The entire spectrum of planning, measuring, and reporting of results of the GBAP OPP needs to be rigorously documented and managed during the remaining timeframe of the GBAP (April 2008) whereby close tracking of all projects, results, and deliverables becomes readily available and actively used in program decision-making. A comprehensive listing of results achieved at the conclusion of GBAP is required so as to allow for a post-mortem assessment of value for money invested.
Given that the population being targeted by a program is crucial to achieving successful outcomes and that this was problematic for the GBAP, the OPP should do an in-depth analysis of reach and report on whether its planned versus actual reach was well-aligned and achieved during program delivery. Such an examination of reach by GBAP may also benefit other ecosystem OPPs as well as the overall OPG.
As a first step in response to the evaluation finding, the ES Board requested that all spending on the GBAP initiative except for select items or elements be suspended. This fall, the results of an analysis carried out by the OPG Leads and the Regional Director General, Pacific and Yukon Region on the planned path forward for the GBAP would be discussed with the Board.
The Georgia Basin Coordination Office (GBCO) has been tasked with establishing and implementing an action plan to urgently deal with improvements to the measuring and reporting of results and outcomes from the GBAP. A preliminary report will be tabled to the ES Board in December 2007, followed by a full report by April 2008. This same exercise will provide the material for a report that documents the outputs and outcomes of GBAP projects, and provides a final report on the 5-year program. This report is targeted for completion by April 2008 in order to provide meaningful summative reporting on the program's achievements.
The GBCO is also operationalizing the performance measurement framework developed in 2004, which provides measures related to outcomes identified in the GBAP logic model.
GBCO staff will undertake an analysis of reach, as they go forward, to document program activities, status, outputs and outcomes.
This analysis will be based on the Communication and Outreach Strategy for the GBAP that was developed through a concerted effort in 2004 and articulates the planned reach. This information will be collected and reported-on in the five-year wrap-up report.