ECan admits it must raise its game

In its first response to the Government review that tore strips from the "dysfunctional" organisation, Environment Canterbury says its accepts change is needed.

The review team, led by former MP Wyatt Creech, found serious faults in ECan's governance and its management, professional and technical performance.

Elsewhere in its report the group said it was also clear much of the poor performance in meeting statutory timeframes was historic.

ECan chief executive Bryan Jenkins responded to the Creech report yesterday, saying the organisation recognised the need for change in relation to water management.

He said ECan had been implementing "change programmes" to improve its performance and the "more collaborative and less-adversarial model" was being rolled out across the organisation.

Mr Jenkins added while the review had praised the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, it had not acknowledged the pivotal role of the regional council's capability in managing and undertaking technical investigations "as well as the stakeholder and community engagement to develop the strategy".

However, resource consent non-compliance would still be an issue, even if a commissioner was at the helm.

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