FAQs

Asset management is something that everyone practices! For example, if you own a vehicle, you make decisions such as if it is worth repairing, buying a new one, or exploring other modes of transportation such as transit or cycling. You know you need to do maintenance on your car such as routine oil changes (or it will be replaced earlier than you may want). 

These decisions are made based on if the car is too old, if the size or features fit your needs, or perhaps you wish to upgrade to a fancier car. These factors can lead to the decision of buying a new car or getting rid of it to take the bus or bike. 

When an organization like the City of Peterborough conducts asset management, they ask the same questions and make the same decisions, but on a much larger scale. Asset management is taking this process that you apply to your own car (an asset) and applying it to thousands of assets while considering the needs of thousands of residents of a city or members of an organization. 

Asset management includes all the activities you perform on these cars (e.g., oil changes, other maintenance, and buying new cars), but also encompasses the different organizational levels and departments and how they collaborate with each other to make these decisions. 

The City is responsible for a lot of public infrastructure that support the delivery of services to residents and businesses. The allocation of funding is a complex process because of the wide range of public infrastructure involved. Asset management formalizes and defines the business processes that result in these infrastructure related decisions. That allows the City to make confident and data-driven decisions on spending to deliver services at levels that meet the needs of residents in the most cost-effective and sustainable way. 

An asset management plan (AMP) is a document that outlines the assets owned by the municipality, the current condition of these assets, levels of service, the lifecycle activities performed on these assets, how the assets are funded throughout their service lives, and recommendations for future improvement.

A key component in asset management is Levels of Service (LOS). In short, LOS describe the outcomes customers experience through the services a city’s assets provide. A municipality’s assets help offer a wide variety of services, and often, performance of assets relate closely to the performance of the services. A good practice is to get feedback from the community on perception of services, understand common themes, gauge which services are valued more, understand which services aren’t being used as much and why, and to pinpoint specific areas of improvement. By doing so, a municipality can better understand the needs and wants of its residents to focus efforts and resources on service areas that matter most.

Levels of service drive funding requirements.

For example, when you use city roads, the condition of the roads you see and feel today is the current level of service the City of Peterborough can provide at current funding levels.  If residents would like to see fewer roads with potholes, cracking, uneven surfaces (i.e., a higher level of service), additional funding would be needed to improve those conditions.  Additional funding would need to come in the form of higher property taxes, new user fees, additional transfers from other levels of government, and/or reductions in other levels of service the City of Peterborough provides.

On the other hand, if residents are satisfied with the current condition and feel of the roads today (i.e., current levels of service), no additional funding would be required and the proposed level of service for roads would be what we see today.

Finally, if residents are comfortable with more potholes, cracking, uneven road surfaces within legislated requirements, (i.e, lower level of service), then current funding can be reallocated to other priority service areas.

The City of Peterborough provides the following services.  A description of the assets that support each service and the overall condition of the asset portfolios is summarized in the table below.

A list of service areas, the asset descriptions and examples statements of what a Community might expect for service levels is provided in the table below.