Asset Management Plans

The Township’s vision is to proactively manage its assets to best serve the Township’s objectives, including:

• Effectively delivering services,

• Supporting sustainability and economic development, and

• Maintaining prudent financial planning and decision making.

The objectives of the Township’s strategic asset management policy are to:

• Provide a framework for implementing Asset Management to enable a consistent and strategic approach at all levels of the organization.

• Provide guidance to staff responsible for asset management.

• Ensure the management of its assets is implemented in the most efficient and effective way possible.

• Provide transparency and demonstrate to stakeholders the legitimacy of decision-making processes which combine strategic plans, budgets, service levels and risks.

Council and senior management will review this policy and incorporate it into the asset management planning approach that fosters the integration of municipal documents such as:

• The Strategic Plan

• The Financial Plan

• The Official Plan

• The Drinking Water Quality Management System Operational Plan

• The Emergency Plan

All of the Township’s plans rely to some extent on the physical assets owned by the Township of Elizabethtown-Kitley. It is the responsibility of council and staff to ensure the strategic use of these assets as well as making decisions on maintenance, repair and replacement of these assets as necessary.

The Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act, 2015 outlined a number of principles meant to assist with the creation of municipal asset management plans in Ontario. The Township of Elizabethtown-Kitley will strive to incorporate these principles whenever possible in the day-to-day operations of the Township:

• Forward Looking: The Township shall take a long-term view while considering demographic and economic trends in the region.

• Customer Focused: The Township will have clearly defined levels of service and apply asset management practices to maintain the confidence of customers in how the Township assets are managed.

• Service Focused: The Township will consider all the assets in a service context and take into account their interrelationships as opposed to optimizing individual assets in isolation.

• Risk-Based: The Township will manage the asset risk associated with attaining the agreed levels of service by focusing resources, expenditures, and priorities based upon risk assessments and the corresponding cost/benefit, recognizing that public safety is the priority.

• Value-Based Affordable: The Township will choose practices, interventions and operations that aim at reducing the lifecycle cost of asset ownership, while satisfying agreed levels of service. Decisions are based on balancing service levels, risks, and costs.

• Budgeting and Planning: The Township shall take into account any applicable budgets or fiscal plans, including those adopted through Ontario legislation such as the Fiscal Transparency Act, 2004 as well as Budgets adopted under Part VII of the Municipal Act, 2001.

• Prioritizing: The Township shall clearly identify infrastructure priorities which will drive investment decisions.

• Economic Development: The Township shall promote economic competitiveness, productivity, job creation and training opportunities.

• Transparency: The Township shall be evidence-based and transparent in its approach. Decisions will be based on information that is shared publicly or made available to the public.

• Consistency: The Township shall ensure the continued provision of core public services, such as road work and administration.

• Environmentally Conscious: The Township shall minimize the impact of infrastructure on the environment by:
  a. Respecting and helping maintain ecological and biological diversity,
  b. Strive to reduce the effects of climate change, and
  c. Endeavoring to make use of acceptable recycled aggregates.

• Health and Safety: The Township shall ensure that the health and safety of workers involved in the construction and maintenance of infrastructure assets is protected.

• Community Focused: The Township shall promote community benefits arising from infrastructure projects, such as:
  a. Local job creation and training opportunities (including for apprentices, within the meaning of section 9 of the Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act, 2015),
  b. Improvement of public space within the community,
  c. Promoting accessibility for persons with disabilities.

• Innovation: The Township shall create opportunities to make use of innovative technologies, services and practices, particularly where doing so would utilize technology, techniques and practices developed in Ontario.

The Strategic Asset Management Policy applies to all assets whose role in service delivery requires deliberate management by the Township. The service rendered by an asset will be the determining factor of whether or not to include it in the asset management plan. Assets of smaller value may be critical to the function and operation of the Township’s infrastructure. Therefore, financial thresholds determined in the Tangible Capital Asset policy, for example, may not apply with this policy.

The policy requires the commitment of key stakeholders within the Township’s organizational structure. The following details the responsibilities of the key stakeholders within the Township:

Council

• Approve by resolution the asset management plan and its updates every five years.

• Conduct annual reviews of the asset management progress on or before July 1ˢᵗ of every year. The annual review must address:
  a. The progress of ongoing efforts to implement the asset management plan,
  b. Consideration of the Asset Management Policy,
  c. The identification of any factors impeding the Township’s ability to implement its asset management plans, and
  d. A strategy to address the factors identified in (c), including the adoption of appropriate practices.

• Support ongoing efforts to continuously improve and implement the asset management plan.

Deputy Treasurer

• Maintain compliance with the asset management policy and provincial asset management regulation.

Department Heads

• Are responsible for asset management planning activities that fall within their departments and in support of others.

The Municipality will integrate asset management planning into the annual capital budget, operating budget and its long-term financial plan. The asset management plan will be referenced by the department heads in the preparation of their budget submissions to assist them with:

a. Identifying all potential revenues and costs (including operating, maintenance, replacement and decommission) associated with forthcoming infrastructure asset decisions;
b. Evaluating the validity and need of each significant new capital asset, including considering the impact on future operating costs; and
c. Incorporating new revenue tools and alternative funding strategies where possible.

The budgets prepared by each department will then be processed in accordance with the broader municipal budgeting process. Finance staff will be involved in strategic asset management planning in order to facilitate the bridge between:

a. The financial strategy developed in the strategic asset management plans,
b. The budget submissions of each department, and
c. The overall budgeting process that is consolidated and presented to Council.

As directed in section 3.(1)7, Asset Management Planning for Municipal Infrastructure under the Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act, 2015, the Township ensures that asset management planning will be aligned with Ontario’s land use planning framework, including any relevant policy statements issued under section 3(1) of the Planning Act, any provincial plans as defined in the Planning Act, and the Township’s Official Plan.

The asset management plan will reflect how the community is projected to change and the related asset impacts. The Township will achieve this by consulting with those responsible for managing the services impacted by development to analyze the future costs and the viability of any projected changes.

The methods, assumptions, and data used in the selection of development initiatives will be made available to all stakeholders in order to support the development of the asset management plan.

Climate change will be considered as part of the Township’s risk management approach embedded in local asset management planning models. This approach will balance the potential cost of vulnerabilities to climate change impacts and other risks with the cost of reducing these vulnerabilities.

The balance will be struck in the levels of service delivered through either operations, maintenance schedules, disaster response plans, contingency funding, and capital investments. These actions will be taken in addition to acquiring or modifying existing assets to better meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

The Township recognizes the residents, businesses, institutions on its territory as stakeholders and the neighboring municipal bodies and provincial agencies in service delivery. Accordingly, the Township will foster informed dialogue with these parties using the best available information and engage with them by:

• Providing opportunities for residents and other stakeholders served by the Township to provide input in asset management planning; and

• Coordinating asset management planning with other infrastructure asset owning agencies such as municipal bodies and regulated utilities.