The Town of The Blue Mountains (TBM) has put together a draft asset management plan, which will guide how it manages and spends money on municipal assets over the next ten years.
The asset management plan demonstrates the current condition of the town’s assets, as well as the required capital, recommended annual cash transfers, and projected reserve balances in servicing ten categories of assets through 2030.
Town assets include things such as parks and trails, water and wastewater pipes, bridges and culverts, and roads, among others.
Overall, 71 per cent of the town’s assets were shown to be in good or fair condition, with 29 per cent in poor or very poor condition.
Of all the asset categories, parks and trails stood out as the only category in which 50 per cent of the assets were in very poor condition. Eight per cent of the town’s overall assets were shown to be in very poor condition.
“For the following 10 years, the town is quite lucky that most of our assets are in good condition,” said the deputy treasurer, Sam Dinsmore, at the Nov. 30 committee of the whole meeting. “We are going to get to the point where we're going to see a number of large facilities, large pieces of equipment, water/wastewater pipes, roads that need to be replaced within a very short period of time.”
The plan projects a total reserve balance of $34.7 million at the end of the ten-year period, which, Dinsmore said, is slightly lower than the current balance.
That said, a number of capital reserve categories will see increased balances by the end of the ten year period, as per projections.
Dinsmore said that the asset management plan was built with the idea of avoiding municipal debt.
“These were built with the idea that we would no longer have a reliance on debt,” he said. “And the main reason for that is if you look at the 2022 budget, one of the main pressures is new debt.”
The plan will likely be updated to meet desired service levels in the community over the coming years, as Dinsmore said the town is in the position to do so.
“I think if you look at most municipalities, they may not be in such a good position as we are,” he said. “I think there can be some good conversations had with the public and with council that maybe we need to scale back our levels of service in some areas, and maybe we need to ramp up our levels of service in other areas.”
Asset management plans became a legislated requirement for Ontario municipalities in 2017.
The plan was endorsed by council at the Nov. 30 committee of the whole meeting, but will need to be ratified at a council meeting at a later date.
The draft of the asset management plan may be found here.
