Asset Management Plan

The City of Belleville uses asset management to plan and maintain the infrastructure that delivers community services—roads, sidewalks, snow removal, transit, water systems and more. This ensures residents get reliable services, risks are minimized and costs are managed responsibly.

What is Asset Management?

Asset management is a planning process that makes sure the City can provide services such as snow removal, transit and clean drinking water, while balancing what the community expects with available funding and risk. These services depend on assets like snowplows, roads, buses and water pipes, which need regular repairs and replacement.

Good asset management tries to keep costs low while keeping services at a safe and acceptable level. Important things to know include:

• What assets the City owns, including their condition, replacement cost and expected lifespan
• What services the assets currently provide
• Whether those services meet the community’s needs
• What services the assets should provide, while balancing community expectations, costs and risks

Levels of Service

Levels of service (LOS) measure how well City services perform, such as the condition of roads or how quickly snow is cleared from streets and sidewalks. Tracking LOS helps connect City spending to the services residents receive and makes decision-making more transparent.

Service levels are grouped into these categories:

• Capacity: Services are available and accessible to everyone
• Function: Services meet people’s needs and reduce health, safety, environmental and heritage impacts
• Reliability and Quality: Services are steady, predictable and responsive
• Affordability: Services are funded for the long term and financially sustainable

The City works to improve asset management, considering outside factors like climate change and funding from other levels of government. Planning aims to reduce the impact of these factors while keeping service levels on track and following the Strategic Asset Management Policy.

Project Background and Overview

In June 2025, council approved the 2025 Asset Management Plan – Proposed Levels of Service. It showed the City will need just under $199 million per year over the next 10 years to meet the proposed service levels. The City expects to have just over $168 million per year, leaving a $30-million funding gap annually.

As part of the 2025 capital budget, council approved the City’s first 10-year capital plan and funding strategy, based on current service levels and past recommendations from the 2024 Asset Management Plan. The plan will be updated regularly to reflect community priorities and current asset needs.

The City reports annually by July 1 on progress toward proposed service levels and updates the Asset Management Plan every five years. Community feedback helps ensure City plans match what residents want.

Risk and Condition Assessment

Asset condition is usually checked through detailed studies. Where that isn’t possible, the City uses an age-based method, rating assets as very poor, poor, fair, good or very good.

The risk of an asset failing is measured by how likely it is to fail and the impact of failure. Likelihood is based on condition. Impacts are rated across five areas: service, economic, health and safety, environment and social.

Assets may be assigned a risk score from 1 to 25, with 1 being the lowest risk and 25 the highest.