The town of Battleford will be receiving a grant to assess its infrastructure. The Government of Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities is giving Battleford $50,000 for its infrastructure condition assessment and comprehensive asset management plan through the Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP).
Battleford has been assessing it’s above and below ground infrastructure and is now reviewing data to determine what kind of costs will need to be budgeted for. Battleford Chief Administrative Office (CAO John Enns-Wind, says most of the work was done last December. While they can’t determine the condition of pipes without looking at them, Enns-Wind says the plan gives a probability for issues.
“It’s all about making timely investments, and smart investments, at the right place at the right now. We don’t want to fall behind, but we also don’t want to overbuild either,” says Enn-Wind.
The asset management plan costs about $80,000 to help provide a roadmap on infrastructure maintenance. Enns-Wind tells MyLloydminsterNow.com that 80% of the town’s above and below-ground infrastructure is past the end of its design life. Much of it is in fair or poor condition at 40-50+ years of age. Enns-Wind says it’s important to make the right decisions at the right time and this assessment will help them determine those decisions on an ongoing basis.
“It provides us guidelines, but we also have to verify each year which assets are more in need of love and care, as it were than other assets.”
The MAMP is designed to help Canadian municipalities strengthen infrastructure investment decisions based on sound asset management practices. The program provides asset management training, funding and information sharing to enable municipalities to access the data needed to plan effectively. MAMP is a five-year, $50-million program, delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and funded by the Government of Canada.