Convening for Action in British Columbia

DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Affordable and sustainable re-investment in municipal infrastructure is essential” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in November 2022

November 8, 2022 - Posted in ...2022, Publications & Downloads

Note to Reader:

Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. The edition published on November 8, 2022 is the story behind the story of Glen Brown’s source of inspiration that led him to coin the term Sustainable Service Delivery in 2010. At the time, Glen Brown was an Executive Director in the BC provincial government.

Affordable and sustainable re-investment in municipal infrastructure is essential

In British Columbia, local government elections were held on October 15th and the extent and nature of the turnover made headlines. Returning incumbents and rookie elected representatives were sworn into a 4-year term of office as of November 7th. They will be dealing with competing demands and priorities. And many will be on accelerating “learning curves”.

As the new folks learn the ropes of the Community Charter (or Local Government Act in the case of regional district electoral areas) and grow into their new responsibilities, we hope they will come to appreciate the insights that flow from our “stories behind the stories”. These are shared by those leading changes in thinking and implementing. Everyone learns from stories.

Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery

In this edition, we feature Glen Brown, the visionary and thought leader who coined the term “sustainable service delivery” a mere 12 years ago. This way of viewing the local government sphere of responsibility changes everything about how local governments do business in an era of rapid change.

Section 7 of the Community Charter defines the roles and responsibilities of local government in terms of “care of infrastructure and services”. In other words, Sustainable Service Delivery. This is a foundational element of local government. It goes to the heart of affordable and sustainable re-investment in municipal infrastructure assets to meet a level-of-service desired by the community.

Eligibility for senior government capital grants is the financial incentive to influence behaviour in a good way. Local governments must show how they are progressing along the Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery continuum.

“Sustainable Service Delivery” explained

“The core document for asset management for BC local governments is Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery: A BC Framework. The title is deliberate and important because the ‘function’ and responsibility of Municipal Councils and Regional Boards is Sustainable Service Delivery. The process to support decision making is Asset Management,” explains Glen Brown, founding Chair of Asset Management BC.

“The Framework provides the basis for the entire asset management process for our local governments to follow. Funding agencies, as part of funding applications, request communities to identify where they are within the asset management process using the framework.”

“While much attention and discussion focus on the Asset Management plan or plans, there is much more to the process than just the plan. In fact, for Council, the implementation strategy and long-term financial plan are more important documents than the asset management plan itself.”