Asset Management Plan

What is Asset Management?

Asset management is a comprehensive planning process that focuses on ensuring the delivery of services, such as snow removal, transit, and clean drinking water, in a way that balances community expectations with financial sustainability and risk management. These services are delivered by infrastructure assets like snowplows, roads, buses, and water mains, which require ongoing investment in repairs and replacements. Effective asset management consists of minimizing the total costs of asset ownership within an environment of limited resources, while also delivering service levels to the community at an acceptable level of risk. In practicing effective asset management, it is important to understand:

What assets we own (including condition, replacement cost, and useful life)
What services our assets currently deliver
Whether the service our assets currently deliver meets the expectations of the community
What services our assets should be delivering, while considering the balance between community expectations, acceptable levels of risk, and the costs of service delivery

Below is a short video that further explains the importance of municipal asset management:

What are Levels of Service?

Levels of Service (LOS) are performance measures for the services the City delivers to the community, such as the average condition of roads or how quickly snow is removed from roads/sidewalks. Establishing and reporting on LOS offers many benefits including, but not limited to, linking investment directly to service outcomes experienced by residents, and improving transparency of the decision-making processes. Service levels, where appropriate and available, are categorized by the following service attributes:

Capacity: Services have enough capacity and are accessible enough to everyone
Function: Services meet customer needs while limiting health, safety, security, natural, and heritage impacts
Reliability and Quality: Services are continuous, predictable, and responsive to customers
Affordability: Services are adequately funded for the long-term and are financially sustainable

The City strives to continuously improve asset management processes and procedures, including accounting for the numerous external factors (such as climate change, availability of funding from higher levels of government, etc.) which may impact short, medium, and long-term plans. Although not always possible, the City’s asset management planning exercises aim to mitigate the possible impacts of external factors while meeting service level expectations, maintaining alignment with the Strategic Asset Management Policy.

Project Background and Overview

In June 2024, Council approved the 2024 Asset Management Plan – Current Levels of Service which identified that just over $1.105 billion (inflated) would be required to address infrastructure needs over a 10-year period to maintain the existing levels of service being provided by the City. As part of the 2025 Capital Budget development, Council approved the City's first iteration of a 10-Year Capital Plan and financing strategy in alignment with the City's current levels of service and financing recommendations as illustrated in the 2024 Asset Management Plan (AMP).

The City is required to have an approved 2025 Asset Management Plan – Proposed Levels of Service publicly available by July 1, 2025. The City is soliciting community feedback through an open survey prior to seeking Council endorsement of the finalized proposed levels of service, ensuring the 2025 Asset Management Plan is aligned with community expectations.

Risk and Condition Assessment Methodology

While conditions are ideally assessed through detailed studies and analysis by subject matter experts, the City has utilized an age-based condition approach where such assessment information was not available, which scores each asset as very poor, poor, fair, good, or very good

The overall risk of an asset is evaluated by determining the probability and consequence of failure. Probability of failure ratings are assigned to assets based on their condition. The consequence of failure ratings are evaluated across five categories: service delivery, economic, health and safety, environmental, and social.

Where possible, each asset is assigned a risk score from 1-25, with 1 being the lowest risk to the City and 25 being the highest risk to the City.

Definitions

AMP – Asset Management Plan
AODA – Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act
BCI – Bridge Condition Index – the industry standard condition rating system for structures as defined by the Ontario Structure Inspection Manual
COF – Consequence of Failure – The risk associated to the failure of an asset
EUL – Expected Useful Life – The typical amount of time before requiring replacement
Infrastructure Asset – a non-financial asset having physical substance that is acquired, constructed, or developed and is utilized for the supply of goods and services e.g. a road, sidewalk, building or building component, etc.
Lifecycle Needs – the activities undertaken on an asset over its life, such as installation, maintenance, renewal, and decommissioning, inclusive of fees associated with design/engineering
LOS – Level(s) of Service
O.Reg. 588/17 – Ontario Regulation 588/17 – Asset Management Planning for Municipal Infrastructure
PCI – Pavement Condition Index – the industry standard condition rating system for pavement, scored from 0-100, with 0 being the ‘lowest’ or ‘worst’ rating and 100 being the ‘highest’ or ‘best’ rating
PLOS – Proposed Level(s) of Service
POF – Probability of Failure

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