Donna Chiarelli
Guest Opinion
In October the 2019 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card was released – a major national report on the state of Canada’s core public infrastructure assets, including roads and bridges, culture, recreation and sports facilities, potable water, wastewater, stormwater, public transit, and solid waste.
The report tells a story about aging infrastructure, some of it in poor or very poor condition. That means it needs attention now or within five years because it presents risks to local services. Local governments will bear the greatest burden in fixing the problem, because about 60 per cent of public infrastructure is owned or managed by them.
Most of the 63 municipalities in P.E.I. are quite small, serving very small populations. But 25 of them manage essential, centralized services like drinking water and wastewater management. It is critical that they identify the biggest risks and address them in a timely way. They also need to plan and budget better to ensure that essential services are reliable and affordable – now and into the future. For too long, municipalities haven’t invested enough in proper maintenance or put enough (or any) money in reserves to fund replacement.
Fortunately, there are 12 municipalities in the province leading the way to ensure they make the best possible decisions about infrastructure for their communities. They have been working together for over a year in a peer learning program delivered by the Atlantic Infrastructure Management Network, a notfor-profit organization and network dedicated to strengthening asset management in municipal governments in Atlantic Canada. AIM Network is an implementing partner of the
Federation of Canadian Municipalities Municipal Asset Management Program, funded by the Government of Canada.
Asset management is a proactive approach to planning and decision making that’s starting to take hold across Canada. It enables municipalities to beef up their data and analysis about the state of their infrastructure, the full costs of managing it over its lifespan, and the risks to service delivery, which could be because of age, condition, climate change impacts or some other factor. It brings key staff in a municipality together, including finance, public works and planning and allows them to see and bring to council the big picture costs and risks associated with community services. This supports councils in setting priorities and budgeting.
The municipalities participating range in size from P.E.I.’s largest city, Charlottetown, to the tiny community of Victoria, with only 104 residents. The others are Summerside, Three Rivers, Kensington, Stratford, Cornwall, Crapaud, Miscouche, Tyne Valley, North Rustico, and Wellington.
Improved asset management planning is helping P.E.I.’s fastest growing city of Stratford manage its growth in a way that accounts for the full costs of all the new services being delivered, whether that is roads, transit, recreation or emergency services. This is an important way to ensure that the infrastructure they are building today will be affordable for years to come and there will be funds available when it comes time to decommission those assets or build new.
Another example is the newly established town of Three Rivers, born in 2018 following the amalgamation of Georgetown and Montague, the village of Cardigan, the communities of Brudenell, Lorne Valley, Lower Montague, Valleyfield and some unincorporated areas in the region. It has a shrinking population and tax base, and asset management is enabling them to better understand the state of all their infrastructure, set priorities and consolidate service delivery where possible to create efficiencies.
Making the right decisions about infrastructure is an important balancing act between the needs and wants of the community, and asset management is helping these communities understand what services and programs their taxes allow for and what they’ll be able to sustain many years down the road. All participating municipalities have learned from the process and most importantly, from each other. They have shown that better decisions are possible, no matter what size of community they represent.
Donna Chiarelli is a freelance writer and consultant supporting communications for the Atlantic Infrastructure Management Network.
