Fed Gov, FCM Join Forces to Boost Quebec Asset Management

Today, the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, and Scott Pearce, President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), announced a federal investment of over $500,000 to help 14 communities in Quebec put in place innovative asset management strategies.

Known as asset management, this investment will help the communities ensure that their infrastructure such as arenas, bridges, drinking water and wastewater systems, and roads are working as efficiently as possible. It will also allow them to make better investment decisions. Asset management also helps reduce risks so municipalities can provide reliable and affordable services and a high quality of life to their residents.

• The City of Thetford Mines. It will receive $50,000 to perform a full inventory of municipal infrastructure under its responsibility and assess the condition of each structure in order to develop an asset management plan. The City will also assess the costs of upgrading its infrastructure and will identify the short-, medium- and long-term investments required to maintain its assets at an adequate service level.
• The Regional County Municipality (RCM) of Fjord-du-Saguenay. It will receive $50,000 to implement asset management through concrete measures. The assets under the RCM's responsibility, i.e., waterways and buildings, are all affected by climate change and exposed to various types of risk. The RCM will make an inventory that will document those assets in order to share this knowledge and make it possible to analyze the impacts of climate change.
• The City of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. It will receive $50,000 to inspect the water mains of its drinking water distribution system in order to plan the future interventions required to maintain its service level. The collected data will also make it possible to update asset management tools.