Asset Management

What is Asset Management?

Asset management is a comprehensive planning process that focuses on ensuring the delivery of services, such as snow removal, transit, and clean drinking water, in a way that balances community expectations with financial sustainability and risk management. These services are delivered by infrastructure assets like snowplows, roads, buses, and water mains, which require ongoing investment in repairs and replacements. Effective asset management consists of minimizing the total costs of asset ownership within an environment of limited resources, while also delivering service levels to the community at an acceptable level of risk. In practicing effective asset management, it is important to understand:

What assets we own (including condition, replacement cost, and useful life)
What services our assets currently deliver
Whether the service our assets currently deliver meets the expectations of the community
What services our assets should be delivering, while considering the balance between community expectations, acceptable levels of risk, and the costs of service delivery

Please view this short video that further explains the importance of municipal asset management.

Asset Management in the City of Stratford

Informally, the City of Stratford has been performing asset management for many years. There are many policies and plans in place in relation to maintenance, renewal and replacement of its assets and infrastructure. As well, there are many asset inspection policies and procedures in place to monitor the condition of many of our major assets.

Over the last 10 years, the City has invested over $250,000,000 in its asset infrastructure. Moving forward, utilizing Federal and Provincial Gas Tax funding, development charges, reserves, and property tax levies, the City will continue to invest $15 - $20M annually in capital and infrastructure projects. Asset management will assist in prioritizing our future capital investments and also assist in making decisions on how assets are maintained and how assets will be replaced.

Asset Management Planning is a long term tool meant to be constantly reviewed and updated as new information becomes available. Using its current asset inventory, the City developed its Asset Management Plan based on the guidelines provided by the Province. This updated plan provides a high level view of all the City's infrastructure assets including (but not limited to): Roads, Bridges, Water, Facilities, Parks, etc.

City Council approved a Strategic Asset Management Policy on June 24, 2019. This policy provides a framework for the development and implementation of the City's asset management program.

Next steps for Asset Management in the City of Stratford

The City of Stratford has already undertaken work for Phase 4 of the Asset Management Program implementation. There is significant work ahead for the next 12 months that will involve public consultation, Council strategic planning and continuous improvement of the City’s asset data. Key initiatives being undertaken in the next year include:

Public Engagement: Surveys and questionnaires will be available to find out what residents know about asset management and what services the City offers that residents want to see investment in.
Pop Ups: Public forum presentations by staff to help educate residents on the City’s infrastructure and long-term capital planning strategies.
Council Planning: Council will be establishing the levels of service for each City service (water, roads, facilities, etc.) and the financial strategy for the next ten years. This will be a critical component of the Phase 4 Asset Management Plan revision.
Data Verification: Ensuring that the data in our asset inventory is correct and reasonable. An example is ensuring that the useful life of an asset in the system properly reflects the real-life cycle of those assets.
Re-classification: Re-classifying our Asset Management Plan to better reflect the City’s department structure.

The updated City of Stratford Asset Management Plan was adopted by Council on May 12, 2025.