Long-term financial planning for sustainable service delivery

Canadian municipalities are responsible for building and maintaining the infrastructure that provides essential services to residents and businesses. To deliver services consistently and reliably, local governments must proactively manage their assets, as a reactive approach to repairing and replacing infrastructure can lead to higher overall costs and lapses in service delivery. A long-term financial plan can help your organization shift from reactive to proactive asset management.

Below you will find:

• Resources that describe the benefits of long-term financial planning for municipal asset management
• Tools to help you develop effective long-term financial strategies for funding infrastructure services
• Guidance on embedding levels of service, lifecycle costing, generational equity and climate resilience into long-term financial planning

Video: The benefits of long-term financial planning 

From minimizing asset lifecycle costs to managing the financial impacts of climate change, long-term financial planning can help you meet community needs today and in the future. This video explores these benefits and more alongside key examples.

Read the transcript.

Tools for developing a long-term financial plan for asset management

Are you ready to take the next step on your long-term financial planning journey? Use this suite of tools developed in part by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Asset Management BC (AMBC) in collaboration with the Union of BC Municipalities and the BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs.

How levels of service and lifecycle costing inform long-term financial planning

In this guide, you’ll learn how levels of service and lifecycle costing inform long-term financial planning, and some ways that social equity and climate resilience goals can be embedded into this process. You’ll find tips, strategies, and examples that shed light on what contributes to an effective long-term financial plan for asset management.

Read the guide.

Guides, templates, tools and more to help you write your own long-term financial plan

By identifying and establishing long-term financial goals, your community can lower ongoing asset maintenance costs while effectively funding community infrastructure and service delivery. However, drafting a plan without prior experience can be a challenging process. 

To help municipal practitioners get started with long-term financial planning, or to help more experienced staff sharpen their skills, AMBC has developed a guide, a customizable template, an Excel tool and a slide presentation. These resources were developed for a broad audience and can help you write a long-term financial plan, compile data and make calculations, summarize and present your plan, and more. 

Access the tools today.