Purpose of the Ministry
The Ministry of Labour and Citizens’ Services comprises two distinct organizations, both with the focus of providing excellent service.
Labour provides services to employees, employers, unions, and businesses in British Columbia to support a modern work environment; and Citizens’ Services has a key role in improving how government services and information are delivered to meet the needs of citizens, businesses and the public sector.
Labour sets the framework within which effective, mutually beneficial, healthy labour and employment relationships can flourish. In this context, Labour has overall responsibility for British Columbia’s labour and employment statutes — including the Labour Relations Code, the Employment Standards Act, and the Workers’ Compensation Act — and for the effective administration and enforcement of those statutes. Three independent tribunals — the Labour Relations Board, the Employment Standards Tribunal, and the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal — also fall within the Ministry’s overall responsibility in the administration and enforcement of these statutes.
The Employment Standards Branch and Labour’s three administrative tribunals all have an important role to play in supporting government’s commitment to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of public services. Specifically, all of these areas are involved in managing complaints and issues that have been brought before them. In all cases, timely and accurate disposition of those complaints or issues is an essential component of a fair and balanced system of labour and employment laws that is readily accessible to all stakeholders.
Labour places significant emphasis on fairness and balance, and actively promotes mutually beneficial relationships by seeking out alternatives to traditional adjudication and dispute resolution, where appropriate. The premise is that the parties are best served by making use of every available means of resolving complaints or disputes before they escalate into complex litigation or strikes and lockouts.
The total number of British Columbians engaged in paid employment is currently at record levels. It follows that the quality of these employment relationships — as measured by indicators such as days lost due to strike activity, how safe the Province’s workplaces are, and how well employers and workers understand and meet or exceed the Province’s minimum labour standards — is a key determinant of the Province’s overall productivity growth and economic well-being. This Service Plan outlines strategies to promote labour stability and beneficial, healthy working arrangements, while ensuring that all of Labour’s interactions with clients and stakeholders uphold the highest standards of government-wide citizen-centred service commitments.
Citizens’ Services plays a leadership role in enabling the transformation of how services are delivered and information is managed across government to meet the needs of citizens, businesses, and the public sector. The Ministry provides front-line services to citizens on behalf of other ministries, and also has a unique role in government as the provider of much of the enabling infrastructure and services1 that ministries need to perform their own core business functions efficiently and effectively.
Most often, making services more accessible, easier to deal with and more responsive to those who need them requires co-ordination across ministries and agencies. This is an area of expertise for Citizens’ Services. The Ministry also takes a leadership role in a large number of government’s initiatives where success is contingent on building relationships, developing innovative solutions to business challenges, and partnering effectively across organizational boundaries. Many areas of Citizens’ Services function on a cost-recovery basis, which requires them to operate in a disciplined, business-like manner.
Citizens’ Services provides corporate leadership and strategic direction for information management and information technology across government. It is responsible for the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the Personal Information Protection Act, the Document Disposal Act, and the Electronic Transactions Act and all policy, standards and directives that flow from them. As such, it identifies requirements for and proposes amendments to these statutes, and makes revisions to the related policies, standards and directives. For example, in April 2007, Bill 25-2007, which contains a number of amendments to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, was tabled. These amendments address recommendations made by the Special Legislative Committee that reviewed the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act in 2004.
Citizens’ Services’ leadership in the areas of access to information and protection of privacy also manifests itself in a number of other ways. Every year, Citizens’ Services hosts a world-class conference on emerging issues in privacy and security. It also develops and delivers privacy and access training and workshops on an ongoing basis to both the public and private sectors.2 In addition, a new online training program that provides a basic understanding of the principles and requirements of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act is set to be launched in February 2008. New policy related to freedom of information requirements has also been drafted and submitted to stakeholders for review and should be ready for implementation early in 2008. Access to information requests that are received by ministries are summarized on a quarterly basis to provide statistics by ministry, type of applicant or request disposition to the public on the ministry’s website.3
The Capital Planning Secretariat provides advice to government on short and long term capital investment decisions. This Secretariat will work closely with ministries to analyze, establish priorities and consolidate and manage information on capital projects.
Both the Labour and Citizens’ Services organizations within the Ministry of Labour and Citizens’ Services conduct their business in a manner that is consistent with and upholds government’s vision, mission and values as identified in the Province of British Columbia’s Strategic Plan.
| 1 | Shared services include: basic tools such as facilities, furniture, computers, phones, printers, email and paper; services such as payroll, mail distribution, and financial applications; and information services and the underlying technology infrastructure to support government. |
| 2 | In 2007, nearly 300 people attended workshops in Victoria, Vancouver, Kelowna and Prince George. |
| 3 | The Corporate Request Tracking System is available at www.lcs.gov.bc.ca/privacyaccess/CRTSstats/index.htm |
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