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Mono fears possible forced spending

July 25, 2024   ·   0 Comments

The plan’s second phase reviews the condition of the municipality’s non-core assets. He said a formal assessment of the condition of the town’s facilities has never previously been done.

“From time to time, municipalities do undertake formal building condition assessments which require specialists’ expertise to come and look at the buildings and establish what the current condition and remaining useful life of individual components from the roof to the flooring, interior finishes would be,” he said.

Mayor John Creelman asked about how Mono stacks up against other municipalities of comparable size regarding the condition of assets.

Simcisko said that would be a tough comparison to make at this stage in the process.

“As we’re seeing these asset management plans come forward now, I think we’re expecting to do a bit more work around that benchmarking piece, see how municipalities compare in that regard,” Simcisko said.

“When we look at the condition profile based on age, there isn’t anything alarming there. If that helps to answer the question. I think we’ve seen and worked with municipalities that have a lot more of their assets that are beyond their useful life expectancy.”

“It strikes me that the lifecycle process is fairly arbitrary in terms of determining a particular asset has a lifecycle,” Creelman said. “We all know that cars and various things have a lifecycle, but we all drive them well beyond the lifecycle.

“We make do with what we have for as long as we possibly can.”

Creelman said it seems the management plan process is heading toward a day when the provincial government is going to demand that municipalities spend money.

“And they are going to order us to spend money to keep our facilities in the excellent, good, and even fair range as opposed to the determination of them being poor,” he said.

Creelman fears the provincial government will insist municipalities spend a specific amount of money annually.

“I don’t believe we have seen any indication to date that the province is intending on setting targets for municipalities,” Simcisko said.

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