Proposed Asset Management…

Proposed Asset Management Planning Regulation Comments

The County of Simcoe supports asset management planning. Historically the County has used asset management planning in the development of the annual budget and the long term financial plan in addition to providing supporting information to other municipal strategic documents. The proposed regulation requires municipalities to standardize asset management plans across the Province. In order to complete this task a number of additional requirements are needed. These include increased analysis and collection of data for service levels, energy costs, and climate change mitigation criteria. For example the proposed community level of service component will increase the collection and management of data. Currently the County of Simcoe provides the technical level of service metrics in the asset management plan. Additionally the proposed regulations requires the cost impacts of projected growth. The County’s current asset management plan identifies costs related to existing assets. The proposed timelines will require additional resources to be compliant. Once the initial phases are completed ongoing maintenance of the asset management plan will require additional resources. The proposed plan suggests approval of the asset management plan by a licensed engineer. An engineer may not be able to sign off on every part of the plan due to their expertise being outside of the area. This will add additional costs to engage engineers that have specific knowledge and expertise of an asset type that the County may not have employed. In summary to achieve the outcomes under the proposed provincial regulation the County of Simcoe will incur additional expenses such as increased staffing costs, staff training and consultant resources. Currently under the Provincial proposal these costs will be borne by property taxpayer. Therefore significant funding from the Province will be required to implement and provide on-going resources to manage the proposed asset management plan regulations.

[Original Comment ID: 210311]