Sustainable Service Delivery: Comox Valley Regional Team Identifies Key Objectives for Holistic Approach
A Regional Response to Infrastructure Liability in the Comox Valley
The initial capital cost of infrastructure is about 20% of the life-cycle cost; the other 80% largely represents a future unfunded liability. This is a driver for local governments in the Comox Valley to change the way they plan, finance, implement and over time replace infrastructure.
Through a program of professional development, the regional district and three municipalities are aligning efforts, building leadership capacity and striving for a consistent Comox Valley regional approach to Sustainable Service Delivery. The Comox Valley program is built around an annual seminar series.
Sustainable Service Delivery
At Seminar #1 in the 2011 Series, Glen Brown (Executive Director with the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development) provided this context: “Sustainable Service Delivery is the Province’s branding for a life-cycle way of thinking about infrastructure needs and how to pay for them over time. The paradigm-shift starts with land use planning.”
Key Objectives for Holistic Approach
“Town-hall sessions are an important part of the seminar program. The sharing and learning that takes place is quite powerful. An ‘Ah-Ha moment’ at Seminar #1 was realizing 
how we needed to describe the distinction between traditional infrastructure and green infrastructure,” reports Kevin Lagan, Director of Operational Services with the City of Courtenay.
“As the discussion swirled, it became clear that framing the infrastructure liability issue in terms of three dimensions (or categories) would help everyone’s understanding.”
“So, to promote a holistic approach to infrastructure asset management, we have crystallized three key objectives for Sustainable Service Delivery: 1) pay down the legacy cost of existing hard infrastructure; 2) reduce the life-cycle cost of new hard infrastructure; and, 3) shift from gray to green to protect downstream values (i.e. environmental and/or agriculture).”
To Learn More:
Click on Sustainable Service Delivery Links Land Use Planning, Watershed Health and ‘Infrastructure Liability’ — The challenge is to think about what asset management entails BEFORE the asset is built. This paradigm-shift starts with land use planning.
Click on Seminar #1 in the 2011 Comox Valley Learning Lunch Series: Links to YouTube video clips of presentation by Glen Brown — The link between asset management and the protection of a community’s natural resources is emerging as an important piece in Sustainable Service Delivery.
Posted June 2011