Champlain Township is receiving $50,000 to develop an asset management strategy and capacity plan, delivered through FCM’s federally-funded Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP).

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the Government of Canada are announcing more than $4.5 million for 109 initiatives across the country (news release and backgrounder attached) through three programs: the Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP), the Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program (MCIP) and the Green Municipal Fund (GMF).   The Township of Champlain is receiving $50,000 to develop an asset management strategy and capacity plan, delivered through FCM’s federally-funded Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP).

  • Aging infrastructure, including roads, buildings and bridges, competing priorities, limited budgets. These are some of the challenges municipalities face in making infrastructure decisions today. FCM’s new Municipal Asset Management Program is a five-year, $50-million program designed to help Canadian municipalities make informed infrastructure investment decisions based on sound asset management practices. The program is funded by the Government of Canada.

According to Champlain Township CEO Paula Knudsen, $50,000 is the maximum grant allocation. The monies will be used to further advance the township’s second version of its Asset Management Plan. Each municipality in Ontario must comply with O. Reg. 588/17 with regards to the various deadlines for future components of AMPs. The cost of the total project is about $80,000.

On December 13, 2017, the regulation O. Reg, 588/17 was approved and took effect January 1, 2018.

The regulation defines new requirements for undertaking asset management planning. The proposed phase-in timelines for the preparation of new asset management plans that were part of a previous consultation process has increased from four to six years.

a) July 1, 2019 – all municipal governments must have a finalized initial strategic asset management policy. Section 3 of the regulation sets out 12 matters that this policy must include and the policy must be reviewed every 5 years.

b) July 1, 2021: all municipal governments must have an adopted asset management plan for core assets (roads, bridges and culverts, water, wastewater and stormwater management) that discusses current levels of service and the cost of maintaining those services. The regulation sets out both qualitative descriptions and technical metrics for each of the core assets.

c) July 1, 2023: Municipal governments to an adopted asset management plan for all of its other municipal infrastructure assets, which also discusses current levels of service and the cost of maintaining those services. The municipality is to set the technical metrics and qualitative descriptions for its other assets (e.g., culture and recreation facilities).

For both b) and c) above, there are some different requirements for municipal governments above and below 25,000 population as well as those within the Greater Golden Horseshoe growth plan area.

d) July 1, 2024: The asset management plans shall include a discussion of proposed levels of service, the assumptions related to the proposed levels of service, what activities will be required to meet proposed levels of service, and a strategy to fund the activities. (AMO believes that this funding strategy will further identify the gap between municipal own source revenues and the need. AMO’s current fiscal analysis for 2016 – 2025 shows a $4.9 billion gap in municipal operating costs and capital needs).

(Information about O. Reg. 588/18 is taken from the Association of Ontario Municipalities website)