Text of Letter to Land Based Ministry Staff

I got this via Andrew Gage of West Coast Environment Law.  I will go through and comment on it later.   In general I read through this and I do not the business case for the changes made.   I could possible see the sense if there was no retention of rump ministries of Energy and of Forests, Mines and Lands, even then I am not certain where the benefit comes from.   As far as I can see the change does nothing to address the concerns people in the mining sector have and seems to be a complete surprise to forest company staff.
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To All Staff in the Natural Resource Sector:

This is an exciting time for the Natural Resource sector.  Today’s announcement solidifies the integrated approach to resource management that we have been moving toward over past few years, by reorganizing the sector into the Ministries of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation; Agriculture; Energy; Environment; Forests, Mines and Lands; and Natural Resource Operations.

Working together is not new.  For decades, staff have been collaborating to optimize resource and environmental benefits for British Columbia.  We have worked between organizations and legal frameworks, across organizational boundaries, and adapted to different service plan priorities.  Making the patchwork successful has been difficult; more so as demands on the resource base have grown in complexity, global competition has increased and our workforce demographics show many of us close to retirement.

The restructuring announced today formalizes the “One Land Manager” concept.  This is not about reducing budgets or workforce levels—each one of us is key to the success of the sector, whether we work in permitting and land use, environmental standards, stewardship or corporate services, to name a few.

In fact, in the coming days much will seem like business as usual as we move through the more detailed steps to ensure an efficient and client-focussed natural resource sector.

This new structure will streamline government processes for critical natural resource industries to better attract global investment and turn proposed projects and investments into actual worksites and jobs. It will enable BC to work with our federal counterparts towards establishing a 'one project, one process' model.

We know you have many questions and we are committed to providing you with more information in the days and weeks ahead.  Tomorrow we will send you a link to detailed Qs and As and continue to update them on a regular basis. We’ll also provide you with an address for sending your specific questions.

We look forward to working with all of you to advance the single team approach to resource management.

Doug Konkin, Deputy Minister and CEO, Ministry of Natural Resource Operations, on behalf of the Natural Resource Sector Management Board:

Steve Munro, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation

Wes Shoemaker, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Agriculture

Robin Junger, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Energy

Cairine MacDonald, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Environment

Dana Hayden, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Forests, Mines and Lands

Steve Carr, Deputy Minister and COO, Ministry of Natural Resource Operations