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 polices 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 contracted a third party to develop an Asset Management Plan based on the guidelines provided by the Province.  This base plan provides a high level view of the core infrastructure assets:  Roads, Bridges, Water, Sanitary, and Storm Sewers.  Municipal staff are now reviewing the data, information, and methodology used in order to refine the asset management plan in order to make future capital budget recommendations.

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

In order to properly guide asset and inventory decisions, asset data and information must be properly collected, verified, and included in the asset management plan.  The major next steps being taken over the next year and a half will be:

• Software and Process revisions:  Updating our software programs and processes to ensure that asset information collected at the source properly flows through our systems and into the asset management database.
• 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.
• Including more asset classes:  Other important asset classes like public housing, buildings, and fleet need to be included in our asset management plan.

For general information on municipal asset management plans, please see the Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure website.