The government informed the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight about its new corporate capital planning process on September 25, 2001. The process was developed and implemented without input or approval from the Regular Members.

With the new corporate capital planning process, or CCP, there is only one government capital target, with all departmental projects competing for the same pool of available funding. Proposed capital projects are placed within a primary rating criteria in the following priority:

• • protection of people;
• • protection of assets;
• • protection of the environment;
• • financial investment; and
• • program need or requirement.

Each project is then considered against a secondary criteria comprised of the following factors:

• • scale of impact;
• • severity of impact if the project is not completed;
• • urgency of the project; and
• • the ability to mitigate.

The evaluation process is done by a Capital Review Committee made up of deputy ministers. It is the Capital Review Committee that determines which project would be chosen based on the new capital prioritization model.

Committee members are concerned that as more responsibilities are transferred to the municipal level, the ability of communities to obtain the necessary infrastructure, human resources and funding to ensure the safe and effective delivery of local programs and services have become increasingly difficult.

Committee members note that since the CCP's first priority is the protection of people, projects in larger, more populous communities would almost always obtain funding at the expense of smaller and less populous communities.

The Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development is of the position that any capital planning process must also take into account essential programs and services such as health, safety and other priorities in the smaller communities. Committee members pointed out that these communities, because of their smaller population, isolation and high operating costs, have less financial and infrastructure capacity to deliver programs and services efficiently, effectively and economically than their larger counterparts. Furthermore, in many of the smaller communities, capital projects funded by the government are often the only source of employment.

The committee first brought attention to this issue during its review of the government's 2002-2005 draft business plans and referred it to the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight to allow for further input from all Regular Members. The Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight recommended that the government re-instate the letter of notification from the Premier to each Member, informing him or her of any changes to the capital plan in their riding. The government subsequently agreed and advised all the Members that the notification letter protocol would be implemented during the preparation of the 2003-2004 main estimates.