The Northeast’s two largest communities are taking stock of assets like water and sewer mains, roads, and heavy equipment and building a plan to maintain or replace them.
“This is a mandatory requirement from the federal government for municipalities to be able to continue to receive their portion of their gas tax funding,” said Barry Elliott, Nipawin’s town administrator.
For both Melfort and Nipawin, an asset management plan will include a registry of all of their assets and their condition, risk assessments, a list of priorities in terms of repairing or replacing certain assets, and a financial plan to manage the costs of the assets. The plan must be underway by March 31, 2018.
Melfort passed an asset management policy at its Aug. 14 council meeting that serves as a framework to develop a plan.
Rick Lang, Melfort’s mayor, said the city receives money from their share of the federal gas tax each year, but they have to prove the money is being spent on infrastructure.
“That’s the biggest advantage of the asset management policy, is to determine what’s available for using the gas tax for in the upcoming years,” he said. “This asset management policy will put those items out front to tell us exactly what’s available to spend the money on and what isn’t.”
Meanwhile, Nipawin has put out a request for proposal for a contractor to develop a plan. Bids for that will be due Sept. 8.
