Municipality of Central Huron Formal Report Finance Department

Date: July 10, 2020 To: Mayor and Council From: Jeff Boyes, Director of Finance

Subject: Municipal Asset Management Program

Recommendation:

That the report entitled “Municipal Asset Management Program” be received; and, That, Council nominate a member to participate in the training; and, That, Council support the Municipality of Central Huron’s participation in this program by signing the attached letter.

Background Information:

The Municipality of Central Huron has been requested to participate in a municipal asset management program facilitated by Association of Municipalities (AMO) that runs from Fall 2020 to September 2021. The pertinent details of this program are outlined on the attached letter of support. Six other Huron County lower tier municipalities have committed to participating. This includes Bluewater, Goderich, North Huron, Morris-Turnberry, , and Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh. Central Huron is expected to choose an area of our infrastructure to focus on for this program and staff is recommending our water and waste water infrastructure. As outlined in the attached letter this program is expected to assist in: • Establishing asset hierarchies; • Identifying existing data gaps, • Establishing levels of service; • Use risk assessments to facilitate Council decision-making; and • Link infrastructure investment priorities with financial strategies.

This will help the municipality by expanding our asset management plan to meet the July 1, 2021 requirements of having a complete inventory of core assets, identifying current levels of service, and outlining the costs to maintain these levels of service. Staff’s primary objective in participating in this program is to facilitate our analysis of our current levels of service. Beyond July 1, 2021 the requirements for our asset management plan will expand to projecting our future level of service requirements, obtaining public input on levels of service and then building a financial plan to achieve those objectives. AMO requires that at least one Council member participate in the program. The council participants will complete an online introductory course on asset management that takes around 1-2 hours.

Input From Other Sources:

N/A

Financial Implications:

There is no charge for participating in this program. While the time commitment is significant the activities being performed will help staff be more efficient when developing the asset management plan.

Recommendation:

That, Council nominate at least 1 member to participate in the training; and, That, Council support the Municipality of Central Huron’s participation in this program by signing the attached letter.

Attachments:

Commitment Letter for the Municipal Asset Management Program. Recommended By:

______Jeff Boyes, CMA CPA Director of Finance

Municipality of Central Huron P.O. Box 400, 23 Albert Street, Clinton, Ontario N0M 1L0 Telephone: 519‐482‐3997 Fax: 519‐482‐9183 Email: [email protected] www.centralhuron.com

July 10, 2020

Letter of Support and Commitment Overview The Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP) has partnered with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) to offer free asset management technical assistance to Ontario municipalities. Through this partnership, AMO will provide asset management training from Fall 2020 to September 2021 to staff and elected officials. The focus of this project is to build municipalities’ internal capacity and strengthen asset management culture by educating municipal staff and elected officials on key concepts and reviewing their asset management governance structure in order to help them:  Establish asset hierarchies;  Identify existing data gaps,  Establish levels of service;  Use risk assessments to facilitate Council decision‐making; and  Link infrastructure investment priorities with financial strategies. Delivery The training will be delivered by AMO and Asset Management Ontario (AMONTario). Each participating municipality will be grouped with 8‐10 other participating municipalities within the same geographic area (based on neighboring counties and districts in AMCTO zones) to form a cohort that will serve as a regional community of practice for collaborative learning and the sharing of experiences between neighboring municipalities. Training activities for staff include participating in two (2) full‐day workshops at a central location for each cohort and five (5) remote coaching sessions covering the project milestones supplemented by individual coaching sessions as requested or deemed necessary. Municipalities are asked to pick an asset category of their choice and work with various tools and templates that require input from key staff in finance, public works and other asset portfolios. Municipalities can also pick multiple asset categories depending on participating staff areas of interest and time commitment. Participating staff will also get to hear from their peers from neighboring municipalities about any challenges they are facing or the progress they are making in asset management. Elected officials from participating municipalities are required to complete AMO’s on‐line course on asset management that provides fundamental information on role of Council and how asset management can be used as a decision‐making tool to identify local priorities. This course is free for elected officials.

Incorporated 2001 Township of Goderich Township of Hullett Town of Clinton

AMONTario will help connect participating municipalities with regional communities of practice to reinforce collaboration and knowledge‐sharing. Outcomes At the end of the project, participating municipalities are expected to demonstrate progress in at least one competency of the FCM’s Asset Management Readiness Scale (AMRS): policy and governance, people and leadership, data and information, planning and decision‐making, and contribution to asset management practice via internal and external knowledge sharing. This is a minimum expectation and most municipalities that have participated previously demonstrated progress in multiple competencies. Schedule of Activities Cohort Activity Timeline Municipality’s initial assessment on the readiness scale August 2020 Elected Officials to complete AMO’s on‐line course Fall 2020 Introductory full day workshop September – October 2020 First milestone on asset management governance October 2020 Second milestone on asset hierarchy and data gap November 2020 – January analysis 2021 Third milestone on levels of service February – March 2021 Fourth milestone on risk assessment April – May 2021 Fifth milestone on financial strategy June – July 2021 Final full day workshop August – September 2021 Municipality’s final assessment on the readiness scale September 2021 Participant evaluation form (to be completed by all September 2021 participants)

Next Steps The Municipality of Central Huron agrees to fully support its staff representatives in successful completion of this asset management technical assistance project. This letter outlines the following commitments:

1. Commitment to participate in the project by multi‐disciplinary staff from various departments like finance, public works (engineering or operations), administration, etc. 2. Commitment to attend all training sessions by staff participants listed in the letter of commitment (see next page). 3. Commitment to finding a suitable replacement in case a signatory staff participant withdraws in order to ensure completion of training program. 4. Commitment by elected official(s) to complete AMO’s free on‐line course on asset management. 5. Commitment to share required municipal data to complete all training activities associated with the five (5) project milestones in collaboration with the trainers within the prescribed time frame. 6. Commitment to share all draft work from the project and attendance stats with FCM to attest to the completion of training.

Municipality of Central Huron P.O. Box 400, 23 Albert Street, Clinton, Ontario N0M 1L0 Telephone: 519‐482‐3997 Fax: 519‐482‐9183 Email: [email protected] www.centralhuron.com

7. Commitment to complete municipality’s initial assessment and final assessment to demonstrate progress using FCM’s Asset Management Readiness Scale. 8. Commitment by all participants to individually complete project evaluation form.

James Ginn, Mayor

Signature Date

List of Participants :

Name and title of Elected Official:

Signature Date

Jeff Boyes, Director of Finance (Staff responsible for tangible capital assets accounting and financial planning)

July 10, 2020 Signature Date

Incorporated 2001 Township of Goderich Township of Hullett Town of Clinton

Ian Koetsier, Water and Sewer Manager (Staff responsible for core services related to water and wastewater)

Signature Date

Deb Stephenson, Deputy Treasurer/Finance Supervisor (Senior Management Representative)

Signature Date