COLD LAKE - City of Cold Lake Council has given its nod of approval to a recently completed asset management plan detailing roads, water, sanitary and storm water infrastructure in the city.
Describing it as an “amazing” document, Mayor Craig Copeland said it was obvious a lot of work went into producing it and he expressed the hope that it would be available to the general public to view on the City’s website.
CAO Kevin Nagoya acknowledged that as soon as council signed off on it, the plan would be added to the website.
More than 200 pages in length, the document “details information about infrastructure assets with actions required to provide an agreed level of service in the most cost-effective manner while outlining associated risks,” according to the report submitted to council for approval. “The plan defines the services provided, how they are provided and what funds are required to be provided over a 10-year planning period to maintain these services.”
As an example, the City’s road network encompasses some 255,671 lane meters with a total replacement value of $149,162,561. The plan looks at the current levels of service and what is required to maintain those roadways, and considers future demand from development, land use changes, increased tourism, weather and water table fluctuation and road deterioration based on age and traffic volume.
In its financial summary, the plan forecasts, based on a 10-year period, an average $8,211,000 per year available through the City’s long-term financial plan to sustain the existing level of service for roads.
The report also provides information on the City’s water, sanitary and storm water infrastructure assets, current service levels, future development, and risk factors in equal detail.
Nagoya said some of the funding for development of the plan was provided through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) as an incentive to encourage municipalities to create asset management plans. He said future government grants will likely require some form of asset management plan be in place in order for municipalities to secure funds.
“This is after several years of municipalities developing new assets and stuff like that and making sure that communities are sustainable and not necessarily just installing infrastructure without the backing of municipal taxes in order to sustain that very same infrastructure,” Nagoya explained.
“The staff put a lot of effort into this,” he told council. “This wasn’t done by all external consultants, there was some support, but this was heavily put together by the staff.”
