Asset Management System for Northern Rockies Regional Municipality

Project Highlights

The Northern Rockies Regional Municipality (NRRM) has developed a comprehensive Asset Management System (AMS) to proactively and sustainably management of its infrastructure.  NRRM is located in the northeast corner of British Columbia, with the largest land base of any municipality in BC, comprising 10% of the province, and a permanent population of roughly 5,000.  As BC’s only Regional Municipality, NRRM combines the powers of a municipality and a regional district.  It is responsible for $520 million in infrastructure that provides essential services to the region’s economic hub.

In 2012, KWL began working with NRRM to create the AMS, which includes plans and strategies for all municipal assets.  The project was designed to achieve the following objectives:

• Make Informed Decisions about infrastructure maintenance and renewal, based on the best up-to-date information available;
• Manage Risks to existing infrastructure so as to promote community safety, prevent emergency expenditures, and prioritize capital projects;
• Maximize Senior Government Investment by fulfilling all conditions for access to provincial and federal contributions; and
• Reflect the Large Scale of the Capital Program in light of the Regional Municipality’s large service area and potential for future growth.

The AMS provides a comprehensive array of tools to guide NRRM in making decisions about its infrastructure assets.  Key features of the AMS include:

• The Asset Management Framework for the entire system incorporates provincial, national, and international standards for asset management;
• The Asset Management Strategy for development, implementation and system is updated over the long-term;
• The Asset Management Policy integrates asset management principles into NRRM governance and processes;
• Individual Asset Management Plans outline the condition and long-term financing of community assets;
• The Asset Information System provides a robust GIS inventory of assets, integrated with municipal procedures;
• The Asset Management Handbook integrates all pieces of the system in one, easy-to-navigate reference document; and
• The Asset Management Playbook is a roadmap for system implementation over the long-term.

The AMS emphasizes service delivery with a focus on rehabilitating existing infrastructure to ensure a solid foundation on which the community can grow and prosper.  The System was developed through ongoing collaboration with a dedicated team of municipal staff to ensure that it is aligned with existing community operations.  It has also been fully integrated with existing local policy and plans, including the OCP and Long Term Financial Plan.  The development process involved robust financial analysis and planning to reflect Council priorities in responding to changing economic conditions across the region.

The AMS was developed over three years and is now being implemented, with ongoing support from KWL.  NRRM is now planning and managing its infrastructure using a fully-costed, 20-year plan.  The plan can be adapted to changing economic conditions while still managing risks and delivering expected service levels at an acceptable life cycle cost.  The AMS has fundamentally expanded NRRM’s capacity to make informed and objective decisions on the full life-cycle management of its infrastructure, while at the same time optimizing administrative efficiency and focusing on what matters most: providing essential services to the community.