The Ministry of Forests, in collaboration with the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands) and the forest industry, has undertaken a project to streamline the Core Forest Information Cycle, including information requirements, business processes, and information management tools.

The cross-corporate Streamlining Project Teams have developed proposals for change based on input from affected stakeholders, including field staff in government and industry, and branch staff. The proposals were made available for stakeholder review and comment in April/May 2005, and the comments received were used to modify the proposals. Final presentations and reports summarizing the proposals will be posted here.

One key product that resulted from the proposals is the Guide to Integrate Mapping Requirements and Standards. It consolidates the mapping requirements and standards for the Forest Information Cycle. The mapping standards addressed in this document include information requirements, administrative business rules and definitions for mapping, precision and accuracy standards, and representation standards for viewing tools and output maps. Where possible the guide linked to existing standards, but in some cases new draft standards were developed to address holes in the existing documentation. This guide is the first draft and will be refined over time.

The Streamlining proposals are being transferred to responsibility centres for implementation. A Business Integration Group will be created to support responsibility centres in the development of guidelines, standards, procedures, system changes, and training to address the proposals.

It is not the mandate of this project to make fundamental changes to core forest management business. Improvements will affect the execution of core business, but not the core business itself. For example, the approaches to revenue, tenure, authorization, approval, C&E and silviculture will remain the same.

The Streamlining proposals represent a vision of information management that is integrated across business areas, with increased functionality of information management tools. Implementation of these proposals will be managed in a methodical and open manner. Changes to systems or procedures will be brought in slowly, with due consideration to time needed for training or transition. In the interim, immediate guidance and transition strategies are being developed.