This text is part of the special section Municipalities
Aqueducts, sewers, wastewater treatment centers, arenas, community centers… The assets managed by municipalities are as numerous as they are diversified. An asset management plan allows municipalities to save money and provide better services to citizens, in particular to deal with the unforeseen events that can result from climate change.
In Canada, nearly 60% of infrastructure is owned by municipal governments, according to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). All managed on a significantly lower budget than Ottawa and their provincial counterparts.
See beyond mandates
“It will cost more, an unplanned intervention, than a planned intervention,” says Catherine Lavoie, President and CEO of the Center for Expertise and Research in Urban Infrastructure (CERIU). In 2022, for example, insured damage caused by extreme weather conditions cost the country $3.1 billion, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
Anticipating this type of situation, coupled with appropriate budget planning, limits the impact on public finances.
Costs that can also be reduced by extending the “life expectancy” of infrastructure, thanks to good maintenance, explains Mr.me Lavoie, also president of the board of directors of the Société des ponts Jacques-Cartier et Champlain incorporated. She even suggests thinking further: “Instead of throwing away the material, can we recycle it, reuse it? »
But in the municipal world, projecting into the future is sometimes a challenge. “We must not forget that there are 48% of new elected officials every four years, recalls Catherine Lavoie, therefore often, [ils] will think for the duration of their term. »
The adoption of an asset management plan is nevertheless advantageous for elected municipal officials, since it facilitates decision-making for the allocation of resources and improves the quality of services to citizens.
Take the bend
Planning the management of one’s assets generally consists of making an inventory, listing their condition, targeting priority interventions while minimizing unplanned interventions, and thinking about long-term needs and investments.
Above all, “you have to avoid getting discouraged,” says Catherine Lavoie, forced to admit that “it’s [une démarche] which requires a lot of collaboration, coordination between the different departments, when we talk about an average or [d’une] large municipality.
A major challenge, for which it is better to be accompanied. It is also possible to call on firms specializing in asset management or to refer to the tools developed by organizations, such as the FCM or the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ), “very active on the issue” , emphasizes Catherine Lavoie.
For the CERIU, “what is difficult is to bring together all these municipalities, then to convince them” to take the plunge, continues its CEO, recalling in passing that Quebec is the province with the most in Canada, some 1,100 municipalities.
“What helped us a lot,” she adds, “was the shift of the Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation, which is moving towards [la promotion de la planification dans la gestion des actifs municipaux]. »
Plan the future
Municipalities are indeed not left to their own devices. In 2016, Infrastructure Canada injected $110 million over eight years into the Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP), delivered by FCM.
Since then, 1,675 asset management projects have been carried out with the 1,500 participating municipalities. Nearing the end of the program, three-quarters of them demonstrated better practice in asset management, according to Scott Pearce, FCM Acting President and Mayor of the Township of Gore.
“It’s a program that is very popular and meets the needs of municipalities,” says the man who admits that he has never seen any resistance from municipalities during the training or support activities offered by the program.
The mayor considers this to be a “primary issue” for the future of the municipal world. He hopes that the PGAM, which ends in 2024, will pave the way for other similar initiatives.
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, relating to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.