Infrastructure paves the…

Infrastructure paves the path of vision to future, accommodate growth, ensure safety and create opportunities for future generations. Recent wave of technological advancements guiding us way of doing things differently for our core infrastructure in our lifeline as roads, bridges, water systems, solid waste, energy, communication, facilities and natural systems. Challenges are enormous to keep up new demands with old infrastructure. Overall decrease in infrastructure investment, degradation, natural events and lack of consistency in management names few reasons can be referred as infrastructure deficit. This regulation is the stepping stone to formalize a common protocol to address the issues. Here are some discussion items with comments on the regulation.

1.Most municipalities have mission, vision, objectives and long-term plan in place but linkage with the existing plan with Asset Management plan and implementation strategy are not very clear. This regulation will reflect on the shared values of the municipalities for various initiatives

2.Municipalities as a cohort based on size, location and characteristics may group or categories for level of investment, levels of service and performance criteria

3.Infrastructure Planning needs to include the design, standards and specifications updates, revisions and new development process. That will give the opportunity to accommodate new demands for demographic changes, technology and adaptive changes for climate impacts and resiliency. This will also provide to implement proactive design options for future infrastructure

4.Municipalities would report on implementation annually – annual reporting is not practical. To report annually municipalities should confirm communication protocol with internal departments and external agencies. Internal reorganization and corporate wise responsibilities needs to be developed. Information does not flow automatically, must make the reporting on data updates as imbedded in organizational culture

5.Consider the funding approval – process needs to be updated for budget, forecast, optimization and prioritization. Must realize the cost of the delay for any reason

6.Inventory analysis should be specific to mandatory and optional data requirements. This also needs to specify the ownership of assets as in upper and lower tier municipalities as well for MTO, Metrolinx, OCWA, MOECC etc. for shared services

7.LOS (Level of Service) – LOS will vary on the size of the municipality and location. Population threshold to be defined. Service levels should come up from growth and forecast, consensus data can be used as a baseline. Levels of service needs to be report each year is also not practical. It is suggested to prepare the LOS for short term like three years. If satisfactorily achieve the targets then LOS can be updated based on demand and existing condition of the infrastructure as well as resources availability

8.LCM (Life Cycle Management) – what to be considered in LCM needs to be clearly outlined. Most municipalities do not have historical costs and consistent protocol to record recent cost information

9.Financial Strategy – ten-year is a complete long-term plan and opportunity to update each year. Each year update is not practical from staffing level for many small and mid-sized municipalities. Financial strategy and revenue generation protocol needs to be more stringent for not only property taxes dependent, user fees to be implemented as toll roads, parking fees, storm water discharge fees etc.

10.Risk Analysis – yes, risk analysis should be done by all municipalities regardless of size and capacity. As for source water protection, natural disaster, air pollution, spill sometimes does not limit to geography and administrative boundaries

11.Approval – Asset Management plan would be required to be approved and written by a licensed engineering practitioner, this needs more clarification. Organizational structure needs to be reviewed. Various municipalities have Asset Management Section under different departments as Public Works, Engineering and Construction or Environmental, Development Engineering, Finance and Facilities Department. Means, simply there is no standard and ideal location. ISO 55000 suggests that Asset Management can work from any location or department to realize the value from organization’s assets. Depends on the municipality’s capacity if there are two Sections may work together well as “Asset Management Section” and “Infrastructure Planning section”. So it is municipalities decision from where it works best for the municipality

12.MMAH 2012 report findings, 40% of Ontario municipalities have a long-term asset management plan. What initiatives this regulation will bring rest 60% of the municipalities?

13.Other acts and regulations will impact like Water Opportunities Act, Metrolinx Act etc. So other relevant Acts needs to be mentioned as Highway Traffic Act, Minimum Maintenance Standards (Maintenance standards), Source Water Protection Act, Clean Water Act etc.

14.How and what other program will contribute to implement this regulation a success as MPMP, Gas Tax and OGRA (MDW) etc.?

15.Asset Management integration with financial plan, innovative technologies and organizational restructuring. How these can be done in a constructive way?

16.Applicable infrastructure – not only transportation but also includes infrastructure in our life lines as water systems, solid wastes, energy, communication and natural systems etc.

17.Infrastructure planning should endeavor to make use of not only recycled aggregates but also refurbish materials, used tires, used construction signs and materials etc. and promotes reduce, reuse and recycle of materials or transform of the materials for other usage

18.Long-term infrastructure plans timing requirements looks reasonable but who will monitor the activities?

[Original Comment ID: 210281]