All communities across Canada are dealing with how to manage their assets.
Last week, the City of Humboldt hosted another Asset Management training session at the Humboldt Uniplex. During a regular Humboldt City Council meeting on November 26, two of the speakers at the training sessions made a presentation to council.
Allen Mapstone of the Institute of Public Works and Engineering Australia (IPWEA) explained what asset management is.
An asset management plan, in simple terms, is a plan for the future about what the city has, what it costs to run what it has and what it is planning for the future.
"(Council) has a very challenging role in how to invest wisely," said Mapstone. "It is about getting the best value for the community. Council has to talk about funding and how to balance priorities."
He explained Australia has been facing the same issues as Canada over the last five to 10 years.
Theo Breedon of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), explained what his organization is doing for communities across the country.
"We represent around 2,000 municipalities across Canada," said Breedon. "Those 2,000 municipalities are about 90 per cent of the population."
The main mandate of FCM is to work with the federal government to ensure the rights and needs of the municipalities across Canada.
"The big issue is on infrastructure," said Breedon. "As we know, the building fund will be coming to an end in 2014."
He explained they are working with the federal government to ensure there is a long-term infrastructure plan for 2014 onward.
There are a number of areas they would like to see work on.
"The first one is a plan that is long in duration so municipalities can take the time to plan and implement their infrastructure requirements," said Breedon. "We are asking for a 15- to 20-year plan so municipalities will be able to plan."
They would also like to see an increase of the current federal standing of $2 billion a year set aside for this to over $5 billion.
"That will bring us up to the GDP standards of the 1960s and 1970s," said Breedon.
FCM is also a huge advocate for the small rural and northern communities.
"We are asking that the Building Canada Fund take back the restriction of the municipalities that apply for funding have a population of 100,000," said Breedon. "That way municipalities, like yours, are able to apply for the funding."
They are also asking for a core economic fund.
"It will hopefully cut away some of the red tape that prevents municipalities from accessing funding for bridges, roads, sidewalks," said Breedon.
The organization's priority now is asset management.
"(Our priorities) are around reacting to or being able to listen to the federal government on what the new regulations will be and how that will impact rural communities," said Breedon.
FCM will be looking at working with the federal government on partnerships for communities.
"We want to ensure that our municipalities are not obligated or mandated to be in partnership that doesn't really work for them," said Breedon.
Although they support all communities having asset management plans, they would like the government to support developing asset management plans in the future, instead of just insisting that all municipalities have one in place.
"There has been some signs that the federal government may require municipalities to have asset management plans to access the federal government funding," which is why they would like the government to help create the plans, explained Breedon.
He explained their talks with senior government officials have been very positive, so far.
"These are positive signs that something good out of these discussions will come for (funding)," said Breedon. "(Jim) Flaherty has indicated that infrastructure will be the economic pillar for the Canadian budget moving forward."
He encouraged council to stay in contact with Humboldt's local MP.
"We have followed FCM's work with the federal government on our behalf and it has produced a lot of good results," said Mayor Malcolm Eaton. "It is really good to have a representative right here in our own community to share with us some of the work you are doing."
Eaton explained asset management has been a challenge for council the last few years.
"Asset management is giving us a plan and mechanism to see what it looks like. It is going to produce good results, I am confident of that."
