Municipal asset management

Asset management refers to a planned approach for managing and investing in a municipality’s infrastructure.

Overview

The Government of Alberta has adopted an approach to asset management, as required under the terms of the Canada-Alberta Gas Tax Fund Agreement. The approach was approved by Infrastructure Canada.

Infrastructure Asset Management Alberta

Infrastructure Asset Management Alberta (IAMA) represents the greater community of a person, organization or agency that is interested or engaged in infrastructure asset management.

The community is supported by the IAMA Working Group which is a voluntary group of representatives from:

  • associations
  • local governments
  • agencies
  • private industry
  • First Nations

The IAMA Working Group recognizes and integrates the administrative, technical, operational, financial and planning aspects of asset management.

Toolkit and handbook

An asset management handbook and toolkit have been developed through a cooperative effort between Alberta Municipal Affairs and the Consulting Engineers of Alberta with the assistance of the Town of Elk Point and the Village of Boyle.

The intent is to provide support documents to assist Alberta municipalities in managing their infrastructure assets.

The infrastructure in our communities is the legacy of a multi-generational investment, made by local, provincial and federal governments.

We recognize the value of the investments made in our community infrastructure, and the risks we face by not managing them for the long term.

Attention is turning toward asset management as a process for making informed decisions to achieve the goal of delivering sustainable services, managing risks and getting value for money.

Any municipality can begin practicing asset management with the information they already have.

The toolkit has been designed to help municipalities who are in the early stages of their asset management journey, or to support others with continuous improvement of their asset management programs.

The purpose of these tools is to provide a low-barrier path to municipalities to build foundations of asset management practices and thinking.