Asset Management Awareness Day
Asset Management
On Wednesday, May 15, B.C. is recognizing Asset Management Awareness Day during Local Government Awareness Week, and so is the RDN. This day highlights the importance of asset management best practices and sustainable service delivery by local governments.
To provide community services cost-effectively and sustainably now and into the future, the RDN is looking for ways to improve the management of the critical assets that supply these services. Asset management - inventorying a community’s existing assets, determining the current state of those assets, and preparing and implementing a plan to maintain or replace those assets - allows the RDN to make informed decisions regarding a community’s assets and finances.
Infrastructure Assets
Many of the services we provide—including water and wastewater, waste removal, transportation, and environmental services—depend, in large part, on engineered infrastructure assets. These assets include pipes, buses, heavy equipment and buildings.
Photo: Heavy equipment at the Regional Landfill, Cedar
Natural Assets
Another class of assets also exists - natural assets. Natural assets are ecosystem features such as lakes, wetlands, green spaces and trees that provide, or could be restored to provide, services just like the other engineered assets.
Photo: Spider Lake, Electoral Area H
Infrastructure and Asset Management
Across Canada and the world, the importance of sustainable infrastructure is being raised. Infrastructure is how governments deliver services to their residents. Local governments are responsible for maintaining an enormous quantity and variety of assets, ranging from major infrastructure such as hundreds of kilometers of water pipes and utilities to items as small as the computers and telephones used by staff to provide services to the community.
The goal of asset management is to achieve sustainable service delivery. This is done by delivering current and future community services to residents in a socially, economically and environmentally responsible way while not compromising the level of service provided.
Our residents and businesses depend on these services. It is easy to forget all the infrastructure needed to deliver water to a tap or take sewage away for treatment – until something goes wrong. Effective asset management involves identifying the life span of our assets, planning the asset upgrades or replacements needed to avoid disruption of service and creating a long-term financial strategy to pay for it. The longer assets age, the more challenging and expensive it becomes to maintain them. And just like with your car or home, these assets may fail much earlier than expected if they are not regularly maintained.
Some of the RDN’s larger assets include:
- The Regional Landfill in Cedar
- The Transfer Station on Church Road in Parksville
- The Greater Nanaimo Pollution Control Centre
- More than 2,072 hectares of regional parks and trails
- Ravensong Aquatic Centre in Qualicum Beach
- Oceanside Place Arena in Parksville
Photo: Oceanside Place Arena
