By Times Staff
District of Clearwater is receiving $65,000 to fund the development of an asset management investment plan for its water and sanitary systems from the federal Gas Tax Fund program.
“Asset management has been a priority for the District of Clearwater for the past few years,” commented Mayor John Harwood. “To date we have been successful in completing and adopting an asset management strategy and policy and in 2017, we successfully completed a criticality and risk Assessment of our buried linear infrastructure (water and sewer). The new funds under the Gas Tax Strategic Priorities will allow the District to go one step further to implement an asset management investment management plan.”
District of Clearwater will get its asset management project underway in the next few months.
READ MORE: DOC to prepare an infrastructure master plan (Feb. 6, 2012)
The local project is one of 112 recently approved for funding by the governments of Canada and British Columbia, plus the Union of BC Municipalities.
“Improvements to local infrastructure are so important. They make our communities better places to live,” said Selina Robinson, B.C. Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “We are pleased to partner with local governments and the federal government to improve the daily lives of British Columbians.”
The total federal Gas Tax Fund contribution towards the B.C. projects is $193 million. This includes 58 capital projects ($185 million) and 54 capacity-building projects ($8 million).
Other projects approved include $3.5 million for Thompson-Nicola Regional District for a regional water meter project, $165,000 to Village of Valemount for an integrated asset management plan work program, and $940,000 to Village of McBride for Columbia Street storm sewer phase 3.
Wendy Booth, president of the UBCM, said, “Communities across B.C. are looking for funding to replace, upgrade and expand local infrastructure. The federal Gas Tax Fund is accelerating the pace of infrastructure renewal through the transfer of close to $3 billion since 2005 for projects in our province. I appreciate the Government of Canada’s long-term commitment to fund priorities identified by BC local governments.”
Wikipedia defines infrastructure asset management as the combination of management, financial, economic, engineering, and other practices applied to physical assets with the objective of providing the required level of service in the most cost-effective manner. It includes the management of the entire lifecycle – including design, construction, commissioning, operating, maintaining, repairing, modifying, replacing and decommissioning/disposal – of physical and infrastructure assets.
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