Canadian Public Works Association Applauds “Asset Management Primer” -

The Canadian Public Works Association (CPWA) had applauded the release of the new “Asset Management (AM) Primer” to assist communities in learning more about asset management for assessment of municipal infrastructure. The Asset Management Primer includes an outline for asset management and recommendations for municipalities to also implement asset management. The AM Primer was developed by the Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM) in support of the Canadian Infrastructure Report Card (CIRC), and can be accessed on the CIRC website.

became apparent that many municipalities lacked critical information on their current assets, as well as the condition of those assets,” said Canadian Public Works Association (CPWA) President Kealy Dedman, P. Eng., City of Guelph, Ontario, and CIRC Advisory Board member. “There is much work to do in providing the information, training, and implementation to make asset management standard practice across Canada.”

CPWA’s representative to the CIRC Steering Committee, Steve Wyton, P. Eng., City of Calgary said, ”The new Asset Management (AM) Primer will serve as a useful tool for learning about and sharing the benefits of asset management. Generally, an asset management plan provides information on the current state of the infrastructure assets, the levels of service expected from the assets, planned actions to ensure the assets can meet those expectations, and financing strategies to implement those actions. This is critical information that then should be updated on a periodic basis.”

The 2012 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card was the first assessment of the nation’s municipal drinking water, wastewater collection and treatment, stormwater management, and municipal roads. Work on an updated Canadian Infrastructure Report Card that will include new categories of infrastructure is underway and expected to be released in 2015. Today’s release of the AM Primer was coordinated by the CIRC sponsors and the Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM) who developed the Primer in support of the Canadian Infrastructure Report Card.

Both the new AM Primer and the 2012 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card are collaborative efforts. CPWA is a founding sponsor organization for the 2012 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card, in cooperation with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Canadian Construction Association, and the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering.