Integrated planning is a process for establishing the First Nation’s priorities and linking them to operations and spending.
A First Nation does integrated planning to make sure that it has enough resources to deliver quality services to its members at a reasonable cost. This will support the First Nation in achieving its goals.
Under the FAL, Council must create a policy to outline its planning and budgeting process that explains:
- when and how often plans should be created and what these plans should include. These plans must include strategic plans, multi-year financial plans, capital project plans, life-cycle asset management plans, and annual budgets
- what parts of these plans overlap or are related to one another
- who is responsible for creating, organizing, approving, changing, updating, and speaking about each of the plans
- how the members of the First Nation will participate in or be told about the plans, the budget, budget deficits, and any significant non-budgeted spending, as is required under the FAL
This policy must specify that the First Nation’s planning and reporting year (fiscal year) begins on April 1st and ends on March 31st of the next calendar year.