Alfred-Plantagenet municipal council members have a lot to think about budget plans and priorities for next year and beyond after receiving the latest update to the municipality’s asset management plan.
Alexa Wylde, senior asset management advisor with consulting firm PSD Citywide Inc., presented a detailed 150-page report on the final phase of the city’s asset management plan to the city council at its Oct. 22 meeting. municipality.
“An asset management plan is a living document,” said Ms. Wylde, emphasizing that any asset management plan (AMP) must undergo regular public review and revision in order to remain useful for future infrastructure planning needs.
“Infrastructure is vital to all communities,” said Ms. Wylde. We must understand what we have. There is no point in owning an (infrastructure) asset if it does not provide some value.”
Provincial regulations now require that all municipalities have a PGA to be eligible for certain financial assistance programs. The development of Alfred-Plantagenet’s AMP has been a work in progress that began with a listing and review of all of its major assets in 2022. The second phase, which took place in 2024, saw a move into review all core assets as well as non-core service assets.
The final phase of the process, next year, will involve looking at all asset and service categories, determining the desired service levels, and deciding what is needed to achieve those desired levels. Once the AMP is completed, it will be subject to regular public review and revision every five years.
Currently, Wylde said, the Township of Alfred-Plantagenet has assets worth $230 million, ranging from roads to water and sewer services to public buildings. , vehicles and machinery, parks and grounds, and other elements.
About half of the $230 million in municipal assets is the township’s water and sewer service facilities. The rest is made up of the road network, bridges, buildings and other elements.
“This is very good news for Alfred-Plantagenet,” declared Ms. Wylde, “because 80% of the municipality’s assets are in fair or better condition.”
The challenge for the township now is to plan how to maintain the majority of its assets in good condition while planning, as part of the annual budget, for necessary improvements or replacement of some of them.
“It’s really about doing the best you can with limited funding,” Wylde said, adding that Alfred-Plantagenet is not the only municipality struggling to meet its infrastructure needs.
She suggested the township consider a two-part plan regarding financial planning for future infrastructure improvement needs. The first step is to continue researching all possible sources of government financial assistance at the next level.
The other step is to consider additional municipal tax/property tax increases in the annual budget, as well as increases in annual water and sewer user fees. The increases she proposed as part of the PGA report are a 1.6% increase in property taxes and increases of 3.1% and 2.8% in annual utility user fees. water and sewer.
These annual increases would be spread over a period of 15 years. Ms. Wylde also recommended that the current and future councils “continue to prioritize the budgetary needs” of the municipality.
