Introduction to Asset Management for Municipal & Community Staff

Iain Cranston

Thanks to

This initiative is offered through the Municipal Asset Management Program, which is delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and funded

by the Government of Canada.

Webinar sponsor

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This initiative is offered through the Municipal Asset Management Program, which is delivered by the

Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and funded by the Government of Canada.

Please take a few minutes to complete our feedback survey.

Free CNAM Membership and a discount to the CNAM 2018 Conference as a thank you!

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Resources – from the Canadian Network of Asset Managers

More info at www.cnam.ca

• Suitable for Elected Officials and all Staff

• $95 per person, inc lunch and materials

1-Day AM Awareness Workshops

Tue March 6, 2018 Torbay near St. John’s, NL

Mon March 12, 2018 Kelowna, BC

Mon April 9th, 2018 Ottawa, ON (in English)

Mon April 30th, 2018 Montreal, QC (en Francais)

Mon May 14, 2018 Windsor, ON (CNAM Conf)

Sun May 27, 2018 Fredericton, NB (CAMA Conf)

CNAM’s Annual Conference – 2018 in Windsor ON

Topics to be covered

• What is Infrastructure Asset Management?

• The benefits of AM to you and your community

• Asset Management competencies

– People & Leadership

– Data & Information

– Planning & Decision-Making

– Policy & Governance

Aligned with FCM MAMP

Readiness Scale

Community Services and Our Assets

Source: City of Windsor ON, Asset Management Plan 2013

Councillors and Community Staff are the stewards of the community’s

infrastructure assets…the community entrusts you to take care of them

Infrastructure and Service Challenges

• ~35% of municipal infrastructure across Canada needs attention CIRC

• As if that wasn’t hard enough…!

– Population change, impacts of climate change,

– Challenging municipal funding model

– Customers with very high service expectations, with no cost

• And that’s for our existing assets…what about new assets we want?

• Federal and Provincial encouragement / regulations for AM

The challenge will keep getting worse, start to get on top of it now!…how long before it’s too late for your community?

So, what is “Asset Management” ?

“Asset Management is an integrated approach, involving all organization departments, to effectively manage existing and new

assets to deliver services to customers.

The intent is to maximize benefits, reduce risks and provide satisfactory levels of service to the community in a sustainable

manner – providing an optimum balance.

Good asset management practices are fundamental to achieving sustainable communities.”

Your are already doing at least parts of this – this is not brand new!!

Source: FCM Leadership in Asset Management Program (LAMP)

Asset Management must connect different departments

Benefits of AM to your Community

• Better understanding of the challenges faced today and in the future

• Better understanding of ‘where the money goes’

• Better appreciation of municipal services

• Improved confidence in municipal management

• More in CNAM’s AM 101 Booklet available at www.cnam.ca/NewToAM

Benefits of AM to your organization

• Clearer alignment across organization with strategic goals

• Find the optimum balance for your organization– Service

– Risk

– Cost

• Budgets and rates are set for a sustainable future

• Departments work together more effectively

• Information and data on hand to support decision making and a list of ‘shovel ready’ projects

“[Asset Management reporting] provided the justification we needed

for infrastructure investment that was lacking before”

Joel Shaw, Infrastructure Engineering Manager, City of Kelowna, B.C.

Benefits of AM to you!

• Clearer understanding of how individual effort connects to strategic direction for the community

• Better access to the information and data you need for your role

• Better connections and working relationships across the organization

• Less reactive, more proactive – giving you more time to think!

This is real…

“For the first time ever, the City has been able to consolidate, analyze and evaluate our asset data consistently across all Departments, through the development of

our Asset Management Plans.

Asset management has facilitated new, collaborative and objective approaches to making investment decisions regarding the City’s top priority needs.

Armed with the current status of our assets and the financial requirements needed over the next ten years, the City has positioned itself to focus on areas having the

greatest risk of not meeting desired levels of service.”

Georges Chartier, Chief Asset and Project Management Office, City of Winnipeg, MB

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Guide to formalizing AM in your organization

Initial Steps to formalizing Asset Management in your organization

• It has to start somewhere!

• Someone / a group needs to get AM moving

• AM must be cross-department, break silos

• Start getting those people in a room together!

• Understand your organization’s current level of AM

• You might already be doing more than you think

• This doesn’t happen overnight…sorry

• Develop a 3-5 year AM Roadmap for your journey

People and Leadership

People and Leadership

• People do Asset Management. Staff are critical to AM.

– Encourage cross-departmental working

– Establish an AM Committee

– Level of resources depends on goals/speed

– Short term ‘side of the desk’ progress

– Might need to bring in news skills

People and Leadership

• Senior Leadership Support is very important

– AM needs top-down support

– Many AM efforts stall without it

– Who could be your senior sponsor?

– Links to Policy & Governance

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• AM will help you meet your goals

– ‘Line of sight’ throughout organization

– Align decision frameworks with goals

– Support delivery of your OCP and Strategic Plans

Data and Information

Understanding your Level of Service

How do you know what projects to prioritize and fund if you don’t know what your service shortfalls to customers are?

• Service performance data is generally missing from communities– What is the cost of our services?

• The gap between your current and target levels can be expensive to fix– What are the community willing to pay for?

• Communicate the services, benefits and challenges with your community

Understanding your Assets

Do you know understand the basics of your asset base?

• It’s very important to understand the basics of your asset base

• Operations and Maintenance

– Do you have adequate budgets in places?

• Life Cycle Planning

– Are you forecasting future major maintenance costs?

Services

Asset Condition and Remaining Life

• Condition Grading

– Move to a common grading system, 1 to 5

– Asset specific scales can be mapped over

– Can use ‘age’ as a proxy for condition

– Prioritize condition assessments to do

• Remaining Life

– Better than ‘design life’

– Estimated by your staff and expertsSource: Canadian Infrastructure Report Card

“We did condition assessments for certain critical assets and some asset classes, but still used age-based estimate for much of our asset base. As we evolve our AM practices we will be doing more real-world condition assessments”

Jeffrey Morrison, Director of Corp. Services, Town of Essex, Ont.

Planning & Decision-Making

Asset Management Plans

• Support your administration in writing your first Asset Management Plan (AMP)

• Get a basic understanding of your assets, services, challenges and funding position

• Can be written at different levels

– Corporate / Department / Asset Class

• Improve the quality of the AMP over time with more data, don’t use that as an excuse not to start!

Start to collaboratively develop an AMP in your organization –great activity to start different departments working together

Lots of example municipal AMPs out there –just search online!

Corp AMP

Water AMP

Treatment Plant

Masterplan

Pump Stations AMP

Roads AMP …

Investment Planning and Decision Making

Dreaming of multi-year budgets? AM will give you much of the data you need for longer term financial planning and rate setting

• Structured approach to Investment Planning & Budgeting – Use data and information on your services and assets

– Use Risk and Criticality

– Transparent prioritization aligned with community goals

– Budgets should be NEEDS based

– What’s the residual risk of the projects you DON’T fund?

• Longer Term Financial Planning– Collect and forecast life cycle activities for your assets

– You need to be able to see ‘what is coming’ in the future, 10+ yrs

– Set appropriate rates for your community to be financially sustainable

Policy & Governance

Strategic Asset Management elements

AM Policy AM Governance

AM StrategyObjectives, Processes, Roadmap, Resources…

AM Framework

Measurement and Monitoring

“The AM Policy is more conceptual,

and the AM Strategy is HOW you put things into practice”

Fernando Smith-Avendano,

City of Airdrie, Alta.

Source: Asset

Management BC

Asset Management Policy

• Top level buy-in and leadership support is necessary to establish formal AM

• AM Policy sets the principles to guide staff on what they should cover with AM

• Get it signed off by Top Management, and approved by Council– Sends a clear message that AM is important for the organization!

• Just be mindful of the implications the policy statements have– Know that you might need time, additional resourcing and funds to get there

Ask your peers about their AM Policy, many are public – share and re-use existing material between the AM Community in Canada!

Asset ManagementTake-aways for Staff

Asset Management Take-aways for Staff

• A formal approach to AM can help you to overcome some of the challenges you are facing today and better position you for the future

• Your organization is already doing parts of this, a work in progress

• Connect with your organization, talk about taking your initial steps– Form a cross-departmental AM Committee

– Start writing your first AMP

– Establish principles in an AM Policy

“Asset management isn’t a capital project like building a bridge. It’s a change in perception and way of working.”

Gordon Duff, Treasurer and Deputy CAO, Town of Minto, Ont.

Help is out there!

Resources – from the Canadian Network of Asset Managers

• CNAM is the public sector national AM community

• CNAM’s AM 101 Booklet; the what, why and how for your community

– Get your copy at www.cnam.ca

– Printed version shipped free to munis

More info at www.cnam.ca

Resources – from the Canadian Network of Asset Managers

More info at www.cnam.ca

• Suitable for Elected Officials and all Staff

• $95 per person, inc lunch and materials

1-Day AM Awareness Workshops

Tue March 6, 2018 Torbay near St. John’s, NL

Mon March 12, 2018 Kelowna, BC

Mon April 9th, 2018 Ottawa, ON (in English)

Mon April 30th, 2018 Montreal, QC (en Francais)

Mon May 14, 2018 Windsor, ON (CNAM Conf)

Sun May 27, 2018 Fredericton, NB (CAMA Conf)

CNAM’s Annual Conference – 2018 in Windsor ON

Resources – Regional AM Communities of Practice

• Connect with your regional AM communities for more specific info

– Go to www.cnam.ca/resources for links across Canada

• Reach out to your neighbouring peers…this is a challenge you can help each other with!

Resources – Funding for improving AM practices

• The Federal and Provincial Govt push for AM is backed up with funding

• Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) $50m 5-year MAMP fund

– More info at www.fcm.ca

• Federal Gas Tax Fund (GTF)

• Plus additional funding from most Provinces – speak to your Regional AM Community of Practice – list at www.cnam.ca/resources.

This initiative is offered through the Municipal Asset Management Program, which is delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and funded by the Government of Canada.

Thanks for your time!