The following resolution was…

The following resolution was passed by Neebing Council on June 21, 2017 (resolution # 2017-06-152):

WHEREAS Posting 013-0551 on the Environmental Bill of Rights, entitled “Proposed municipal asset management planning regulation”, is posted for public comments until July 24, 2017;

AND WHEREAS The Corporation of the Municipality of Neebing is a small, northern, rural municipality with extremely finite (and diminishing) financial resources and very few staff persons;

AND WHEREAS the Municipalities staff and Council appreciate the value of Asset Management planning, and sees Asset Management Planning as an appropriate tool to assist municipal councils in making wise purchase and maintenance decisions relating to its capital and infrastructure assets, addressing both current and future needs and expectations;

AND WHEREAS the costs associated with preparing, maintaining and reporting on the detailed information set out in the proposed regulation exceed the financial capacity of the Municipality, and, it is suspected, that of any other small rural municipality;

AND WHEREAS the level of detail, monitoring and professional consultant involvement mandated by the proposed Regulation is sufficient to cause an Asset Management Plan for a small, rural municipality to become a financial and workload burden rather than a financial management tool;

AND WHEREAS the level of detailed reporting being demanded by the Asset management regulation represents significant micro-management of municipalities by the Province and provides a level of information not required for appropriate rural infrastructure and asset management at the rural municipal level, although it may well be appropriate for urban infrastructure;

AND WHEREAS the Province has not seen fit to impose similar obligations on its own Ministry operations, which are not required to have or report on Asset Management Plans;

AND WHEREAS the creation, monitoring, data recording and reporting requirements are such that small, rural municipalities would need to engage consultants and/or hire additional staff in order to participate, which defeats the purpose of the financial efficiency and effectiveness that Asset Management Plans are supposed to represent;

AND WHEREAS the Province has stressed, since the introduction of asset management planning for municipalities, the need for community and Council buy-in to the merits of asset management planning;

AND WHEREAS rural residents see no value to them or to their municipalities in the level of detail (and related expenditure) required by these regulations;

AND WHEREAS regulations and onerous and expensive requirements such as those contained in the proposed regulations are putting a strain on any support that the Municipal Council had to the concept of Asset Management Plans as they were first introduced, and making it impossible for them to convince rural residents of the merits of the plan;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Council for The Corporation of the Municipality of Neebing strongly urges the Province to exempt small, rural municipalities from the onerous and unnecessary requirements contained in the proposed Asset Management Plan Regulation;

AND FURTHER, if the Province is unwilling to exempt small, rural municipalities from all of the requirements contained in the proposed Asset Management Plan Regulation, that it provide the exemption to the proposed regulations as posted and then engage in meaningful discussion with small, rural municipalities on appropriate and manageable requirements to be contained in a separate asset management regulation applicable only to small, rural municipalities;

AND FURTHER, THAT the Council for The Corporation of the Municipality of Neebing provide these comments to the Province during the review period.

[Original Comment ID: 209999]