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View all case studies for the 2022 Sustainable Communities Award winners. 

Summary

Food waste is a contributor to climate change not only because of the associated unnecessary energy use, but because organic materials decomposing in landfill produce greenhouse gases. When food is discarded, it is a missed opportunity to redistribute that food to people who can eat or otherwise use it. In order to find the most impactful ways to reduce food waste, Guelph-Wellington conducted a study that examined the local food system from production to export and consumption. It found a number of solutions to the food waste problem that have the potential to both address economic inequality and reduce the community’s carbon footprint. 

Background

Guelph-Wellington encompasses the City of Guelph and Wellington County. This region in southern Ontario has a population of about 223,000, almost 60 percent of whom live in the city. The county is largely rural with strong ties to food and agriculture. Predominant products include corn, wheat and soybeans as well as beef, swine and poultry. 

The community identified food waste as an opportunity to address both inequality and the climate crisis. A great deal of food waste is avoidable, meaning that with improved organization and distribution, the so-called waste could be saved for consumption. In addition, both avoidable (e.g., rotten fruit, stale bread) and unavoidable (e.g., egg shells, vegetable peels) food waste contributes to greenhouse gas emissions along the entire chain, from the resources used to produce discarded food to the methane created should organics end up in landfill. 

The challenge

Guelph-Wellington wanted to turn food waste into a valuable resource by creating a circular food economy in the region and reimagining how the community produces, distributes, sells and consumes food. The goal: to reduce the quantity of food sent to composting or disposal facilities in favour of either consuming it or using it for higher-value purposes.

In order to take on this challenge, Our Food Future was established. The group’s vision includes three pillars:

• Increase access to affordable, nutritious food by 50 percent, where “waste” becomes a resource;
• Create 50 new circular businesses and collaboration opportunities; and
• Produce a 50 percent increase in circular economic benefit by unlocking the value of waste.

Approach

In order to achieve this vision, the team needed to better understand the local food landscape so that they could find opportunities to make positive change. With this in mind, Our Food Future launched a project that consisted of three stages:

1. Gathering and analyzing data on food and food waste in the region.
2. Engaging with local stakeholders to build a roadmap and identify the best specific interventions to undertake in order to find higher-value uses for food waste.
3. Piloting three of these potential interventions.

A key factor in the project was engaging the expertise and insight of multiple partners — not just the city and the country but also subject matter experts, non-profits, private sector companies and governmental organizations, both in and outside the region — who had valuable perspectives to share. One way this group participated was in defining the ways success would be measured, including:

• Value recovery of edible food,
•  Total organic waste diverted,
•  Reduction of environmental footprint, and
•  Incremental economic value of outputs.

Barriers

Data collection and creating a standard data set was one of the major challenges in this project due to:

•  The multiple sources needed,
•  The absence of certain sets of data, and
•  The time required to convert received data into standard units, to match food commodity categories and to analyze the quality of data to ensure a quality final output.

After the initial material flow analysis (MFA) was completed, the team purchased additional data sets for comparison and to verify results. They found that the more relevant of the two sets confirmed their initial analysis and concluded that freely available data is adequate for this kind of study, which is useful knowledge for other municipalities looking to replicate this project.

Another challenge was having to pivot from in-person to virtual engagement sessions, which was originally seen as a negative outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they were able to create useful and engaging virtual sessions by using digital collaboration platforms including Miro and Mural, which they found were a good way to collect a large amount of useful feedback efficiently. There have since been requests to continue with virtual sessions because many participants find them a more convenient way to participate. 

Results

Most importantly, the community gained a solid understanding of the food system in the region and of where waste occurs. They obtained an MFA in the form of a Sankey diagram, which is a visual representation of the flow of resources through the food system, including both production and consumption patterns. 

The data gathered shows the environmental impacts of consumption patterns, such as greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater withdrawals and land use per kilogram.

The team identified five “hotspots” where food waste is high-impact or causes a high loss of economic value. These included storage and packing areas of the supply chain as well as households, hotels and businesses. They then chose three of these hotspots as business cases to be piloted, based on three factors: feasibility, potential effectiveness and community enthusiasm.

Benefits

Thanks to this completed MFA and roadmap, the Guelph-Wellington community has discovered opportunities not only to decrease waste, but to increase access to affordable and nutritious food. The team is assessing potential projects on their economical and social impact as well as environmental. One proposed pilot project in particular will focus on how best to use food redirection platforms so that usable food can be rescued and consumed or upcycled rather than wasted.

Lessons learned

One major lesson learned from this project that it is immensely valuable to find effective ways to communicate complex data sets. The infographic the team created to illustrate the MFA has garnered “awe and excitement” from stakeholders for how clearly it depicts the local food system and potential solutions to waste. 

While it takes rigorous data collection and analysis and extra effort to produce this kind of graphic, the end result makes it easier for stakeholders to quickly understand the information being communicated and to identify priorities and work toward actionable change.

Next steps

The Our Food Future team is currently working with FCM on a proposal to launch the three interrelated pilot projects identified during the analysis:

•  Expand Industrial, Commercial & Institutional (ICI) Food and Food Waste Collection;
•  Enhance Existing Food and Food Waste Redirection Platforms; and
•  Harness Energy Potential of Food Waste.

These include the food redirection project mentioned above as well as an investigation of how to turn unavoidable food waste into electricity through anaerobic digestion, with a potential reduction of up to 1,800 tons of CO2e annually. They are also creating a workbook for the sake of replicability, to help other communities perform similar analyses.

Quote

“By creating a more circular food system, we're strengthening our community, ensuring greater access to good nutrition and taking action to address the climate crisis.”

– David Messer, Executive Director, Smart Cities Office, City of Guelph

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Summary

Many Canadian municipalities have declared a climate emergency and are seeking ways to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. One major contributor to these emissions is ice rinks, which make up about one-quarter of energy usage from municipal buildings. In order to find cost-effective ways to reduce the carbon footprint of these facilities, a group of municipalities teamed up to analyze the issue and create net zero road maps for themselves, as well as a pathway for other rinks to follow. Results found a potential average savings per rink of 243.3 tons of CO2e by 2050, and show that not only are net zero retrofits cost-effective when planned well, but also have social, environmental and economic benefits beyond emissions reduction.

Background

When communities in Canada look at their greenhouse gas emissions from municipal buildings, ice rinks stand out. The math alone makes them an important emissions reduction target, as they typically make up 20 to 30 percent of energy use within the municipal building portfolio. But they are significant from the point of view of communications as well, as these well-used community hubs can showcase climate action by serving as an example of how to retrofit buildings and improve operations to meet efficiency and climate goals. 

The challenge

Despite a desire to make change, many municipalities lack the resources to conduct a thorough plan for these kinds of capital upgrades. For this reason, a group of seven southern Ontario municipalities teamed up with the non-profit Climate Challenge Network to conduct a pilot project with two primary goals:

1. Figure out how best to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from municipal ice rinks and, ultimately, get them to net zero.
2. Develop a pathway for other rinks to follow.

Approach

The seven municipalities — Toronto, Brampton, Markham, Barrie, Caledon, Halton Hills and King — submitted a total of nine rinks to the study. 

This cohort approach had the value not only of sharing effort, risk and learnings, but of garnering a broad range of useful data. The rinks submitted were of various types, from older to more state-of-the-art, including one that hosted an Ontario Hockey League team and had its own requirements.

The project also incorporated a “zero-over-time” approach, meaning that roadmaps were created for minimal waste and maximum equipment life span by aligning capital improvements with required equipment renewal, and prioritized improvements in operations to achieve reductions as early as possible. 

The team conducted three phases of work:

1. Reviewed energy and building data, key drawings, capital plans and any previous energy audits or building condition assessments, plus conducted site visits to verify and gather further information.
2. Ran integrated design workshops and capital review workshops with building managers, technical experts and other stakeholders to create and assess solutions and plans.
3. Created a feasibility study for each rink, providing a summary of the building’s current status and emissions targets, a timeline of how to achieve reductions incrementally, a list of potential measures and a lifecycle financial analysis.

Barriers

The primary barrier was the difficulty in finding relevant building and trend data. In particular, drawings were missing for some of the older buildings, and many facilities lacked data for many systems.  

Results

The results from this project show that not only is it achievable for municipal ice rinks to transition to net zero, but it is financially feasible as well. In fact, over the lifespan of an ice rink, reducing emissions has positive economic benefits when you consider the total costs to operate, maintain and renew building equipment.

The feasibility studies demonstrated that an average of 85 percent emissions reduction can be achieved. This ranges from 26 percent for purely operational measures to 99 percent in a best-case scenario. 

Collectively, by following the roadmaps, the participating municipalities and rinks will be able to lower total emissions by 2,189 tons of CO2e by 2050.

Project participants have created a guidebook in partnership with FCM on achieving net zero ice rinks, and other municipalities have been reaching out for support to conduct their own studies. 

Benefits

In addition to lowering emissions, benefits of net zero building upgrades include:

•  Additional environmental benefits, such as less pollution
•  Waste reduction, due to maximizing the life span of infrastructure
•  Positive social impacts, including health, worker productivity and comfort
• Economic benefits, including lower energy bills

While these kinds of retrofits often have higher upfront capital costs than business-as-usual building maintenance, savings from lower energy bills can offset these costs, especially when calculated over the entire life span of the building. The key is to plan ahead and time energy-efficient retrofits for when equipment is already scheduled to be upgraded. 

Retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency rather than building new has the added benefit of avoiding the upfront carbon emissions1 associated with creating any new materials. 

Lessons learned

The cohort has the following recommendations for municipalities looking to create their own net zero plans:

1. Gather building data and documentation as early as possible, to avoid slowing down the process.
2. Plan to implement a building automation system (BAS) as early as possible. A whole-building BAS helps maximize data collection and allows for easier identification of trends and potential savings opportunities.
3. Work collectively where possible, in a cohort with whom you can share ideas, expertise and risk. Incorporate an integrated design approach that includes all stakeholders to help with buy-in and avoid costly omissions.
4. Plan measures over time, with operational improvements first (to achieve early results) and capital retrofits timed with budgets and planned replacements.
5. Incorporate life cycle costing to show both emissions and cost savings over the longer term.

The team also highlighted the value of a coaching and peer-support approach to knowledge sharing. For example, one way to achieve significant emissions reductions in ice rinks is by switching from hot-water to cold-water ice resurfacing. While the cold-water method is just as effective when done properly, operators can see such a change as risky when the quality of ice is so important to facility users. Climate Challenge Network hosted a webinar on this method featuring rink operators already using the cold-water technology so that they could answer questions from their peers and offset any hesitation.

Next steps

Participating municipalities and rinks are now moving into the next phase of this project: finding funding to implement their road maps. They and Climate Challenge Network are working on various means of knowledge sharing beyond the guidebook, including webinars. In addition, plans are underway to conduct a similar cohort study on another big piece of municipal infrastructure: swimming pools. 

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Summary

Roads and vehicle traffic are a significant source of injury and mortality for wildlife, and road ecology experts are looking for ways to improve this situation, especially for species at risk. In one Ontario community, a road construction project presented an opportunity to try a new approach to reducing its impact on turtles and snakes. A group of partners came together to rescue reptiles from the roadside and research the effectiveness of various mitigation methods. The result? More than 3,500 turtle eggs saved, at a lower cost than traditional barrier fencing.

Background

The Township of The Archipelago encompasses several thousand islands in central Ontario along the eastern coast of Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay, as well as a number of inland lakes. It has a total population of 13,332 residents, 979 of whom live there year-round, and is part of Shawanaga First Nation’s traditional territory.

The township is part of the Georgian Bay Mnidoo Gamii Biosphere site, which was designated by UNESCO in 2004 as a model of sustainable development hosted in the traditional territory of the Anishinabek peoples. The Township itself considers sustainable asset management and preservation of the natural environment to be among its core principles. In 2019, the region was named a Community Nominated Priority Place for Species at Risk, meaning it was designated by and given funds from Environment and Climate Change Canada to support community efforts to protect endangered species.

Habitat fragmentation due to roads is known to be a major threat to wildlife worldwide. “Road ecology” is a field of study that aims to better understand this problem and the best ways to mitigate it, including the ways in which roads are built and maintained. Turtles are especially vulnerable to being harmed by roads for a number of reasons:

•  For most species, it takes several years — as many as 20 — to reach reproductive maturity.
• It takes about 1,200 to 1,400 eggs, or about 60 years, for a single turtle to replace itself in the wild.
•  Turtles and other reptiles require habitat connectivity to forage, mate, nest and overwinter; roads make it more difficult for these animals to move safely between habitat areas.
•  It’s not uncommon for turtles to be killed by vehicles before they’re old enough to reproduce.
•  Evidence suggests that many turtle species are in decline specifically because of road mortality.

The usual way of mitigating harm to wildlife during road work is by installing exclusion fencing. While this can be effective, it is only in place during the actual construction work and can actually create additional problems should the fencing structure be compromised. It can also be expensive to install in bedrock-rich environments such as are found in the Archipelago region.

The challenge

In 2020, an opportunity arose to use and test best practices from road ecology in an upcoming road works project. 

The Skerryvore Community Road connects the community of Skerryvore to Highway 69 as well as providing residents of Shawanaga First Nation with access to an ecologically significant wetland and spawning grounds. A 12-kilometre stretch of this road was due for resurfacing and culvert replacement. 

Stakeholders decided this was a good chance to study reptile use of the roadway and surrounding area while also exploring ways to reduce harm to turtles and snakes both during and after construction.

Approach

To fulfill the requirements of this project, and based on learnings from other road monitoring and turtle hatchery projects from groups such as Magnetawan First Nation, a partnership of local organizations came together. They included the Township, Shawanaga First Nation (SFN), the Georgian Bay Biosphere (GBB), Laurentian University, Tatham Engineering and local construction companies Hall Construction and Fowler Construction. 

The project spanned two years, which gave The Archipelago, SFN and GBB ample opportunity to study the effectiveness of various mitigation measures. In 2020, crews rehabilitated culverts and installed rip-rap — a collection of loose stone — along wetland edges. In 2021, they resurfaced the road.

All partners worked together to keep reptiles and their eggs safe. For example:

•  Staff and construction workers were taught about local reptile species and trained to identify, handle and move turtles and snakes from construction areas. They also participated in hatching release events.
•  GBB and SFN staff were present and on-call during construction to assist reptiles and move snake and turtle nests found on road-sides to GBB offices for incubation.
•  Together with Shawanaga First Nation, the team incorporated Indigenous traditional knowledge into the project’s day-to-day, for instance by using bilingual signage and including a tobacco offering during daily road surveys.
•  Construction included installation of rip-rap and paved road shoulders. Both methods are being researched by GBB and Laurentian University as means to deter female turtles from nesting on roadsides.

The study portion of the project included two types of surveys: road mortality and nesting. These helped researchers understand where and when reptiles were using the road and for what purpose — for instance, basking, nesting or crossing. This data is important to guide and assess mitigation measures both in The Archipelago and elsewhere. 

The team also made sure to engage the broader community in the project, through education and events. In 2021, for example, the GBB offices hosted turtle hatchery tours open to the public.

Results

One key finding of this project was that the novel approach to barriers was both more eco-friendly and more cost-effective than what is typically used. 

Including construction workers in conservation efforts and training them to care for reptiles found on site meant that these partners gained a sense of ownership and responsibility as well as new skills that can be brought to future projects.

Benefits

The project brought a number of benefits to the community and the local environment:

•  By not installing exclusion fencing, the team eliminated a number of harmful effects of such work. There was less disturbance of habitat, no risk of plastic or metal being left behind, and fewer GHG emissions from equipment and vehicles.
•  In 2021, 297 kg of greenhouse gases were saved by using e-bikes rather than gas-powered vehicles for road ecology monitoring.
•  Efforts to engage the local community meant that residents were on-board and engaged with the project, so much so that they were even bringing coffee to the construction crew. There is now increased local awareness of the cultural and ecological value of snakes and turtles.
•  The knowledge gained has helped inform conservation actions and direct further studies to assess replicability. Lessons learned will be applied to best practices for public works departments.
•  Protecting species and habitats is an important way to improve climate resilience. Across the two-year project period, more than 3,300 turtles were released back into the wetlands along Skerryvore Road.
•  The project has been an opportunity for the Township, GBB, Laurentian University and Shawanaga First Nation to work together and get to know each other’s capabilities and needs.

Lessons learned

One key success was the cooperation between numerous organizations connected to the region. In particular, it was an excellent opportunity for GBB and The Archipelago to partner with SFN on a project important to all involved.

This collaboration worked well in large part because partners had been developing their relationships for years, and had taken the time to build trust and reciprocity. For other municipalities who would like to embark on similar partnerships, Steven Kell, the species at risk biologist and project coordinator with SFN, has the following advice:

•  Reach out to First Nations and other Indigenous groups in your area, and learn about their capacities and preferred ways of communicating and working together. Remember that not every community will have specialists on staff, so it helps to use plain language.
• Convey all stages of a project to local Indigenous communities so that they can tailor their participation based on their capacity. Some parts of a project may be more applicable, or a better fit for their background.
•  Find out how communities use and have used the land in question, and how they would like to use it in future. For example, some members of Shawanaga First Nation access their land by foot or ATV and a reptile fence could hinder access, so construction plans should include options to get over that barrier.

Kell also points out some lessons learned on a more general level:

•  Involving multiple partners from the start is beneficial, including when it comes to the construction crew. While they might initially be resistant to working in new ways, they will grow to appreciate the value of environmental monitoring in the early stages due to how smoothly things go later on.
•  It’s important to have good data when attempting mitigation techniques, and it can be valuable in the end to delay a project to gather necessary information.
•  Look to the future — and be honest about long-term maintenance capabilities — when deciding on the best strategies to protect wildlife. A less-effective technique that requires less maintenance might be better in the long run than a more-effective technique that fails quickly.
•  Having boots on the ground and communicating with drivers is useful outreach and encourages them to be more cautious.

Next steps

The study evaluating how well rip-rap and paved shoulders deter turtles from nesting on roadsides will go on for multiple years. When it is complete, the results will be shared so that other municipalities — and other at-risk species — can benefit.

Quote

“Involving the construction crew in the hands-on portion of the biology work created a bond with the species that were being protected and resulted in further cooperation and protection, because the crew had a sense of guardianship over the animals and sites they were directly helping.”

– Steven Kell, species at risk biologist and project coordinator, Shawanaga First Nation

Background

Over the past 10 years, the City of Kelowna, British Columbia, has made great strides in advancing its asset management program, thanks in part to a grant from FCM’s Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP). The grant was instrumental in helping the city develop an asset management policy, framework and strategy that identified roles and responsibilities and guided major initiatives, including implementation of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and updates to asset management plans that are integrated into long-term financial plans.  This contributes to consistency in managing assets and coordinating activities and investment across business areas (e.g. transportation, parks, utilities, civic buildings).

As of October 2022, MAMP has approved 129 asset management grants for local governments in British Columbia, of which 55 are complete and the rest underway. MAMP has also funded four partner organizations in British Columbia which, along with MAMP's national partners, have reached 100 local governments in British Columbia through asset management training and awareness-building activities.

Highlights

• Early and ongoing Council, senior leadership, staff, and community involvement
• A corporate asset management policy, framework and strategy endorsed by senior leadership and communicated to Council, detailing governance roles and responsibilities and program stewardship roles
• Implementation of a CMMS used by more than 700 staff to schedule maintenance and track the condition of 30,000 infrastructure assets
• Regular updates to asset management plans that are integrated into the financial plan through annual update to the 10-Year Capital Plan
• More than 30 percent of the city’s capital budget invested in asset renewal

The challenge

Kelowna is a city of 143,000 people in the Okanagan Valley in southern British Columbia. It faces challenges that are familiar to many Canadian municipalities—aging infrastructure, a large infrastructure deficit, a growing community and ever-increasing service demands. When it started its asset management journey in 2012, the city had no formal asset management strategy and business areas that didn’t always communicate well, leading to fragmented decision-making and other inefficiencies.

The approach

The Kelowna team opted to involve Council, senior leadership, staff, and the community from the beginning, even knowing there would be gaps in the information being reported. This early involvement gave them diverse insights and helped them tailor the program to best serve community needs.

Taking specialized training with FCM, NAMS Canada and the Canadian Network of Asset Managers helped the team find a path forward. They identified business area responsibilities (e.g., scheduling maintenance and tracking asset condition, identifying timing of asset renewal, participating in asset management planning), and developed key performance indicators.  In addition, the community was invited to participate through an online tool that challenges them to choose infrastructure and services that are important to them while also trying to balance the budget and competing needs.

Kelowna uses an off-the-shelf software suite for its maintenance management system, with templates that are customizable for each business area. However, it is only a tool, and, to create buy-in and boost the return on investment, the team made sure the 700+ operational staff were an integral part of the customization process.

Key steps:

• Creating asset management and change management roles that combine a people and a business perspective, to manage challenges with implementation and maintenance.
• Kelowna’s Corporate Asset Management team has three dedicated asset management roles (Asset Management and Capital Planning Manager, Asset Planning Manager, and Asset Systems Manager) to champion the program. In addition, there are two dedicated Business Analysts from Information Services and two Asset Coordinators from the Infrastructure Division that are part of the core team.
• Linking asset data to long-term financial planning. The data are used to inform annual updates of the 10-year capital plan, and the infrastructure deficit is tracked as a performance measure. 
• Building top-down and bottom-up engagement and creating clear accountabilities, including detailing governance roles and responsibilities in the asset management policy and outlining program stewardship roles.
• Convening a steering committee and a cross-functional asset management governance team to stay on track.
• Taking advantage of resources on the FCM website to develop the strategy and roadmap.

“Change management is a huge and ongoing part of any successful asset management program, and it can get lost in the quest for data and tools. Keep people informed and involved and set clear expectations and accountabilities—and ensure compliance as needed.”

– Joel Shaw, Asset Management & Capital Planning Manager

Barriers

Managing change and expectations was a major challenge. Asset management is neither fast nor simple, and, as expected, there were some resisters. However, early and vocal endorsement from Council and senior leadership, along with a strong message that participation was mandatory, helped get everyone on board. In fact, as the benefits of using asset management data to guide decisions and support budget requests were demonstrated in practice, many of the resisters ended up becoming some of the most enthusiastic users.

The results

Kelowna’s corporate asset management policy, framework and strategy are fully endorsed by senior leadership and communicated to Council. Kelowna now invests more than 30 percent of its capital budget on asset renewal.

Kelowna developed and follows strong corporate asset management policies and processes that maintain continuity and consistency.

By integrating planning, finance, operations and engineering, Kelowna created a line of sight between community expectations and infrastructure and services, reducing fragmentation.

Having good asset management data means Kelowna knows its deficits and problem areas, from buildings to parks to pipes to pavement. The data are used to inform renewal decisions and target preventive maintenance decisions which help assets last longer and reduce operational costs.

In many business areas that were previously paper based, work orders, inspections and service requests are accessible online, making it easier to share activities seamlessly between the office and the field. This has improved operational efficiencies and data quality while reducing duplication of effort. Having digital data in almost near-time means staff can see trends, historical information and current work status at a glance, again supporting data-driven decision-making. 

Lessons learned

 “Overwhelming” is a word that comes up often in the context of asset management, especially in municipalities that are just getting started. Kelowna deliberately chose an approach that was both pragmatic and systematic, making sure it was geared to the city’s available resources and capabilities.

Ongoing staff engagement and timely user training are vital. In the end, it’s people who do asset management, and success comes with helping them understand the process and recognize and value its benefits.

In retrospect, Kelowna would have engaged business areas sooner, to identify and optimize their processes, and had the areas assign subject experts.

Next steps

Kelowna is updating its corporate asset management plan (2040 Infrastructure Plan) for expected release in 2024 and is amending its current plans to include climate considerations and natural assets.

Resources

• City of Kelowna’s 2030 Infrastructure Plan

Contact

Joel Shaw, P.Eng.
Asset Management & Capital Planning Manager
City of Kelowna, British Columbia

Background

The Rural Municipality of Manitou Lake in Saskatchewan lies south of Lloydminster, right up against the Alberta border. It was incorporated in 1910 and just over 500 people live in its vast area of 840 square kilometres. Key industries are agriculture and heavy oil extraction, and many of its 360 kilometres of developed roads are used to truck oil to processing.

Receiving a Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP) grant allowed Manitou Lake to further develop its asset management plans, particularly for roads and bridges, and provide training for Council and staff.

“MAMP funding allowed Council and staff to work together to improve our asset management program, particularly for risk and levels of service registers. This is helping us make crucial decisions about infrastructure assets during the economic downturn.”

– Joanne Loy, CAO

From 2017 to 2022, MAMP funded 226 asset management grants for municipal projects across Saskatchewan, and provided training and education through MAMP-funded partners to more than 400 municipalities in the province.

Highlights

• Asset management training helps Council and staff “speak the same asset management language” and develop a common understanding of their asset management goals.
• Council's willingness to match the MAMP investment and take the training was instrumental to the successful outcomes.

The challenge

When municipal leaders recognize the need for change, whether in reaction to economic, regulatory or social pressures or as a proactive measure to better serve residents, it sets a positive direction that can lead to lasting improvement. Manitou Lake developed its asset management systems in part due to regulatory requirements for tangible capital assets, and as a response to a simple question: “How can we make all the information we have more useful, beyond just creating financial statements?”

Since 2016, Council has also been facing difficult service delivery decisions about what is most important and what can wait, due to a nearly 30 percent decrease in tax revenues caused by demographic and economic shifts.

The approach

With only four full-time staff, the chief administrative officer (CAO) and the foreman are key champions for asset management. Over the years, staff have taken a variety of training, including from the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) and FCM partners such as NAMS Canada, Asset Management Saskatchewan (AMSK) and the Canadian Network of Asset Managers. In 2016, the CAO obtained her Professional Certificate in Asset Management Planning from NAMS Canada.

Manitou Lake also worked with Dr. Gordon Sparks from the University of Saskatchewan (who wanted to start a community of practice that later became AMSK) to develop an asset management plan for 56 kilometres of heavy haul roads, feeling that shrinking the planning to a small chunk would make the process easier to manage. Later, through the MAMP grant, Dorian Wandzura of LadderUp Consulting Ltd provided asset management training for Council.

The barriers

Just finding time was difficult, and asset management planning sometimes tended to get pushed aside as other duties and responsibilities took priority. Knowing the value it could bring and the ultimate goals helped staff and Council stay on course.

There were issues getting — and keeping — everyone on the same page, especially with Council turnover after bi-annual elections. However, focusing on regular training and discussion helped maintain continuity and shared understanding.

At times, staff lacked confidence about whether they were doing asset management “right,” and were uncertain about the best way to create the plans and adapt the data. Having access to outside expertise to pull the various threads together was a benefit, as were FCM resources such as the Asset Management Readiness Scale, the communication tool Starting the asset management conversation in your municipality, the guide How to develop an asset management policy and strategy, and the videos and webinars.

The results

Manitou Lake now has a strategic asset management plan and roadmap, along with asset management plans for heavy haul/high volume roads, paved roads, gravel roads and bridges. A plan for equipment and buildings is underway.

Staff developed a condition rating scale and completed condition rating on all roads. Council is aware of the scale and sees it as a valuable tool.

Council has better information upon which to base service delivery decisions, and a clear understanding of the associated risks and costs that come with changes to levels of service. It is also working to establish and follow a structured decision-making process to minimize risk and improve service to residents.

Staff use the asset management roadmap to regularly engage Council in decisions about levels of service and risk, and adjust the levels based on needs and strategic priorities. These activities strengthen communication to ratepayers about current levels of service, the cost to maintain those levels and the consequences when the levels change.

Lessons learned

Successful asset management planning requires a true partnership that includes regular conversations between staff and Council. Engaging Council as active participants not only in the learning process but also in the development of service levels created a sense of confidence in and commitment to the outcome. Everyone understands that although asset management planning can be challenging, there are also risks and consequences to not doing it.

While asset management planning can guide and focus robust discussion, it does not provide immediate answers. Effort is still required to understand the information, know how to apply it and account for changing conditions and community needs.

Asset management is a future-oriented process that shows due diligence and helps manage change. Rather than a once-and-done administrative or financial exercise that can be “finished,” it is an ongoing process to improve decision-making.

Next steps

Manitou Lake continues to focus on keeping Council, and especially new councillors, involved. This helps ensure they see the value of asset management and understand the need to devote staff time to it.

The municipality will be considering how climate change will affect asset performance.

Succession planning is also on the radar, to capture knowledge, transfer information and ensure good asset management practices continue even through staff and Council turnover.  

Contact

Joanne Loy
Chief Administrative Officer
RM of Manitou Lake, Saskatchewan