Municipal asset management planning

Asset management planning

Asset management planning (AMP) is an ongoing and long-term process that allows municipalities to make the best possible investment decisions for their infrastructure assets. This includes:

• building
• operation
• maintenance
• renewal
• replacement
• disposal

In many parts of Ontario, existing infrastructure is degrading faster than it is being repaired or replaced, putting services at risk. To help address this issue, the Province implemented the Asset Management Planning for Municipal Infrastructure Regulation, O. Reg. 588/17 (as amended by O. Reg. 193/21), effective January 1, 2018.

The goal of this regulation is to help improve the way municipalities plan for their infrastructure. The regulation builds on the progress municipalities have made while bringing consistency and standardization to asset management plans to help spread best practices throughout the sector and enable the collection of comparable data.

Tools and supports

Developing asset management plans may be challenging for some municipalities, especially the smallest ones. We have tools and supports in place to help municipalities develop and maintain their asset management plans in the long-term.

Ontario’s AMP it Up program for municipalities

We are continuing to provide asset management tools and supports to municipalities. As of April 2022, our programming will include:

• coaching and assistance: one-on-one consulting to help Ontario’s smallest municipalities with populations under 5,000 meet regulatory timelines
• group workshops: detailed workshops on various topics to help municipalities complete the work required to comply with the regulation
• communities of practice: cohort-based working groups to enhance knowledge sharing and collaboration between municipalities with similar infrastructure needs

We will provide more information about continued tools and supports for municipalities soon.

Get more information about the services offered by MFOA.

Community of practice activities

Communities of practice provide valuable opportunities to share best practices in the field of asset management. Asset Management Ontario has developed a successful community of practice network throughout Ontario. With our support, it is expanding its successful peer network to reach more municipalities and help them meet the requirements of the new regulation within the prescribed timelines. Community of practice initiatives include:

• small group, hands-on seminars
• online forums
• peer reviews
• asset management planning readiness assessments
• benchmarking
• other training opportunities

Learn more about these initiatives.

Communities of practice guide

With our support, the Municipal Finance Officers’ Association (MFOA) prepared a guide to provide practical recommendations to help municipal staff develop and maintain their own communities of practice to best meet their needs.

Read more about the Asset Management Communities of Practice Guide.

Asset Management Self-Assessment Tool

The online Asset Management Self-Assessment Tool and Maturity Framework supports municipalities in their evaluation of their asset management planning readiness. It also allows municipalities to explore potential approaches for moving to higher levels of maturity.

Read more about and access the Asset Management Self-Assessment Tool and Maturity Framework.

Key components of the municipal asset management planning regulation

Strategic asset management policy

The strategic asset management policy will guide the municipality in the development of its asset management plan and set out how the municipality will improve asset management planning practices over time.

This policy, which is separate from the municipality’s asset management plan, must include the following:

Alignment

• Municipal goals, policies or plans that are supported by the asset management plan

Executive engagement

• Overview of council’s involvement in the planning process
• Identification of executive lead responsible for the development of the plan

Process

• Process for considering the asset management plan in the development of the annual budget
• Process to align asset management planning with any financial plan prepared under the Safe Drinking Water Act, 2002 or any financial plan related to wastewater assets
• Ways in which municipality will continuously improve asset management practices
• Principles that will be followed during the planning process, including those outlined in section 3 of the Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act, 2015
• Process to ensure alignment with Ontario’s land-use planning framework

Technical

• Explanation of the capitalization threshold being used

Commitments

• Coordinate planning efforts where appropriate, consider climate change adaptation and mitigation activities and engage with the public.

Asset management plan

The following sections provide a general overview of the key components of an asset management plan as required by the regulation. For more detailed information, municipalities can review the full regulation.

1. Infrastructure asset inventory

Municipalities are required to provide summary-level information on each asset category, if applicable, including:

• asset types (for example, urban arterial road, rural arterial road, watermains) and quantity/extent (for example, length in kilometers for linear assets)
• replacement cost valuation (replacement cost valuation is forward-looking and accounts for expected inflation, changes in technology and other factors)
• average age of the assets in the category
• asset condition, including a description of the municipality’s approach to assessing the condition of assets in the category (for example, this could include categorizing the proportion of assets in “good,” “fair” and “poor” condition)

The municipality must indicate how the background information and reports used to inform the summary-level information for each asset category will be made available to the public.

2. Levels of service

The levels of service component of an asset management plan describes what people experience from the municipality’s infrastructure. For example, bridges without load restrictions can offer a relatively higher level of service compared to bridges that do not allow heavy freight vehicles.

The regulation requires municipalities to determine the levels of service that their infrastructure assets provide using metrics. These metrics will help municipalities determine, for each asset category, the current levels of service provided by their infrastructure assets and allow them to establish proposed levels of service they want to achieve over time.

Current service levels

When determining the current levels of service, it is important to use data from, at most, the two calendar years prior to the year in which the current levels of service are established.

Proposed service levels

When establishing the proposed levels of service for each of the next 10 years, the municipality must explain why the proposed levels of service are appropriate. Get more information about the phasing for this requirement.

Metrics

Metrics are provided in the regulation for core infrastructure assets. The metrics are focused on the scope and reliability of the service and address:

• community levels of service (a qualitative description or image of the services experienced by the people using the asset)
• technical level metrics (a quantitative figure that describes the level of service provided by the asset, for example, the percentage of bridges in the municipality with loading or dimensional restrictions)

Municipalities are required to establish their own metrics for non-core assets.

3. Lifecycle management and financial strategy

By July 1, 2025, the regulation requires municipalities to determine the lifecycle activities that they need to undertake for each asset category over a 10-year period to provide the proposed levels of service.

Lifecycle activities

The regulation requires municipalities to identify lifecycle activities based on the options they have considered.

Good asset management planning requires a complete understanding of the range of choices available to municipalities.The analysis must consider:

• the entire lifecycle and associated costs related to the assets;
• risks;
• and the financial viability of the options considered.

Financial considerations

The financial component of the strategy must include the estimated costs of the identified lifecycle activities to achieve the proposed levels of service, and the funding available, for each year of the full 10-year period.

Tips and best practices

The following is a list of suggested actions that, alongside the requirements of the regulation, will help municipalities develop a successful asset management plan.

• Obtain a Council resolution that directs staff to develop an asset management plan in compliance with O. Reg. 588/17 (as amended by O. Reg. 193/21).
• Establish a working group or steering committee to engage the appropriate municipal departments in the process.
• Ensure that engineering, finance and other specialists are included in the asset management planning process.
• Consider if advice from external experts would help Council to make better informed decisions on the asset management plan.
• Examine the potential advantages and disadvantages of potential partnerships with neighbouring municipalities. Partnerships could be as simple as sharing resources and bundling multiple projects into a single procurement. They could also be more complex arrangements, such as consolidating infrastructure services.

Timing of regulation

The Asset Management Planning for Municipal Infrastructure Regulation (O. Reg. 588/17 as amended by O. Reg. 193/21) was made under the Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act, 2015, and it came into force on January 1, 2018. The regulation was amended on March 15, 2021 to extend regulatory timelines for phases 2, 3 and 4 by one year.

O. Reg. 588/17 helps municipalities better understand what important services need to be supported over the long term, while identifying infrastructure challenges and opportunities, and finding innovative solutions.

Contact us

If you have any questions, please contact us by emailing MunicipalAssetManagement@ontario.ca.