Asset Management

Municipalities manage and maintain their infrastructure assets to promote local economic development and quality of life for their residents. Each municipality actively decides what infrastructure assets are required to deliver services, and what service levels are appropriate and affordable. This has been the standard practice for decades.

As municipal governments are accountable to citizens through their councils, decisions to invest in infrastructure are based on the needs, desires and aspirations of local communities, and their ability to pay for the costs of providing these services.

Even though these considerations have always been part of the infrastructure decision-making process in local governments, municipalities are now undertaking a comprehensive and more transparent process in managing assets and the associated services.

This structured and strategic approach, commonly known as asset management, help municipalities to:

• Make cost-efficient infrastructure investment decisions with a long-term perspective.
• Expands on the traditional approach to managing assets by proactively investing in infrastructure assets to meet expected service levels while balancing costs and risks.
• Helps prevent service failures or service disruptions.

AMO CAN HELP

AMO supports municipal sector progress in asset management through several capacity-building projects, policy directives, and administration of the Canada Community-Building Fund.

AMO also provides support for municipalities by developing educational resources for elected officials, and offering training for municipal staff to build technical expertise and facilitate the adoption of better practices in asset management for Council.

AMO staff regularly review all asset management plans collected during the most recent reporting cycle. When requested, staff is available to provide feedback to municipalities on their current asset management plans.