The Town of Newmarket is…

The Town of Newmarket is supportive of the intent of proposed municipal asset management planning regulation, that being to promote effective planning for the long term needs of infrastructure over time. However, we are in agreement with concern expressed by AMO that the currently proposed regulation is too prescriptive and will be unaffordable and too difficult for our municipality to comply with in the identified time period; this is especially the case for smaller municipalities with populations of less than 25,000.

Additional concerns include:

The additional costs for adding staff, staff training, consultants (including engineers) and data management/IT systems for the Town of Newmarket that will be a direct result of meeting the proposed legislation.

Core infrastructure assets have been identified for completion by 2021 with the requirement for all remaining assets to be completed by 2022. This timeline is idealistic given the wide scope of additional assets that will require completion with a one year time frame, additional time is required to meet this requirement;

The addition of energy costs, climate mitigation information and growth planning will result in significant additional workload and could result in duplication of information already contained in Official and Strategic Plans, energy regulation requirements, and other municipal government initiatives;

‘Approval’ by a licensed engineer before ‘presentation’ to council may add unnecessary costs to the organization in the event that the Town’s Engineer may not be willing to sign off on every part of the plan even if it is beyond their expertise. If the requirement for Engineering sign off remains it is suggested that a CPA also be required to provide sign off as Asset Management is not just an Engineering or Financial Accounting exercise.

[Original Comment ID: 210141]