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The goal of ‘Sustainable Watershed Systems, through Asset Management’ is to forestall an unfunded taxpayer liability flowing from ‘changes in hydrology’. This means protect and manage the water balance of a watershed in the same way that engineered assets and the services they provide are managed. The foundation for this paradigm-shift was laid in the 1990s when Bill Derry (photo left) and Kim Stephens led a workshop program for BC municipalities.

The Clean Water and Wastewater Fund is a program that supports long term benefits in the rehabilitation of water, wastewater and stormwater systems, and for the planning and design of future facilities and upgrades to existing. “Water and wastewater infrastructure is essential to keeping waterways clean and communities healthy. This funding will support local governments in creating essential public infrastructure that future generations will depend on,” stated Premier Christy Clark.

“Many of the services that we deliver to the citizens of Gibsons are directly or indirectly delivered by nature,” Machado told members of the CRD finance committee. “At the heart of the Gibsons Eco-Asset Strategy is North America’s first natural asset policy, which directs the municipality to consider the role of natural assets within our overall asset management strategy. The innovation in this strategy is that it helps to explain the value of natural assets in terms of financial and management strategies.”

“As co-chair of Asset Management BC, I have seen first-hand how proper asset management principles have benefitted communities around the world,” wrote David Allen. “Increasingly, the benefits provided by nature are being recognized and incorporated into the delivery of local government services. Unlike the built environment, healthy ecological services are self-sustaining, and don’t require expensive operations and maintenance costs.”

“Whether it is our bodies or our infrastructure, we may be tempted to resent, ignore or argue with the slow inexorable tide of aging but that is not leadership. Leadership is having the courage to face reality,” wrote Christina Benty. “The asset management process provides the information for local government to develop a strategy that considers realistic life-cycle projections, replacement costs, and risk analysis to allow for long term organization-wide planning.”

“Implementation of asset management along with the associated evolution of local government thinking is a continuous quality improvement process, not a discrete task. This led us to the concept of a continuum. The relevance of this way of thinking is that different local governments will always be at different points and different levels of maturity along the asset management continuum. This is why we focus on outcomes and do not prescribe what to do in BC,” wrote Ray Fung.

“People do not build infrastructure for its own sake, but to provide the services they require. Across countries and sectors, there is a growing recognition that nature can provide vital services equivalent to those from engineered assets,” wrote Roy Brooke. Where nature provides equivalent services to engineered infrastructure, it should be accorded at least similar management and protection. Much can be done to support and accelerate the trends under way.”

“The Ministry of Environment appreciates that the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC embraces shared responsibility for the Water Sustainability Action Plan. The next phase of the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative through 2017 will add to ‘Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery: A BC Framework’ and integrate watershed systems thinking and adaptation to a changing climate into asset management,” wrote Wes Shoemaker.

“Implementation of asset management along with the associated evolution of local government thinking is a continuous process, not a discrete task. We needed a way to illustrate this diagrammatically, and thus communicate, what the journey by a local government to the eventual Sustainable Service Delivery destination would look like. This led us to the concept of a continuum,” stated Glen Brown. “Over time they can achieve the goal of sustainable service delivery for watershed systems.”

The report uncovered that reinvestment rates in Canada’s municipal infrastructure are not meeting target rates, despite continued efforts on the part of municipal governments. “What this survey shows is that we need to repair our existing infrastructure. Our infrastructure is aging and we need to accelerate the rate of renewal,” stated Kealy Dedman, President, Canadian Public Works Association.