Asset Management

The 2024 Asset Management Plan was approved by Council in June 2024. It is an important guiding document for the management and maintenance of the City’s existing assets over time.

The Plan includes an assessment of all City-owned assets (State of Infrastructure), which are valued at $11.4 billion and are on average between 15 and 30 years old. It also provides the framework for the efficient and cost-effective maintenance of City infrastructure by detailing current asset Levels of Service and performance, the asset renewal actions through the Asset Management (Life Cycle) Strategies, and an Asset Investment Strategy prioritized based on risk. Key factors impacting asset management planning such as evolving demographic trends, growth and climate change were also taken into consideration. This Plan is the third major corporate asset management report since 2021 and represents the culmination of all the City’s continuous improvements in asset management.

Using the wide range of data City staff have collected, the Plan helps guide when and where investment is needed to repair or replace City assets by informing and supporting the development of the City’s capital budgets. This helps to ensure Richmond Hill can deliver crucial services to the community in a financially sustainable manner, in alignment with direction from the City’s Capital Sustainability Steering Committee.

The approved Plan achieves compliance with the July 1, 2024 Ontario Regulation 588/17, Asset Management Planning for Municipal Infrastructure (O. Reg. 588/17) regulatory deadline.

Read the 2024 Asset Management Plan.

The City’s inaugural State of Infrastructure (SOI) report was endorsed by Council in June 2023. The SOI report built on the 2021 Asset Management Plan by providing an updated summary of all the City of Richmond Hill’s current infrastructure, and identifying potential infrastructure needs to inform the capital budgeting process.

It provided a consistent analysis and reporting approach in one consolidated report. It included updated asset inventories, replacement values, conditions, and ages relative to service lives. This report facilitated an improved line of sight of how asset conditions, life cycle investments, and service levels evolve over time from the addition of new assets, deterioration of existing assets, and prior capital renewals. This supported capital programming for the City’s capital budgeting process. The 2023 State of Infrastructure Report was a precursor to the 2024 Asset Management Plan by establishing an updated full state of infrastructure for City-owned assets.

Read the 2023 State of Infrastructure Report.

The 2021 Asset Management Plan was approved by Council in June 2021. The approved Plan established compliance with Ontario Regulation 588/17, Asset Management Planning for Municipal Infrastructure (O. Reg. 588/17), one year ahead of the specified regulatory deadline of July 1, 2022.

The Plan outlined the City’s approaches for the efficient and cost-effective management of the City’s Core+ assets to ensure our community stays safe and services are maintained. It provided a long-term in-depth understanding of the City’s Core+ infrastructure assets (state of infrastructure), how the City manages them (life cycle strategies), how well those actions are working (service levels), and how much it would cost to maintain them to provide City services (capital investment forecasting, risk and gaps). Core+ encompasses the definition of “core municipal infrastructure assets” as outlined in O. Reg. 588/17 plus the addition of the City’s active transportation infrastructure (within right-of-way) and recreation facilities (community centres and arenas).

• Roadway System (Core)
• Water Distribution System (Core)
• Wastewater Collection System (Core)
• Stormwater Management (Core)
• Recreation Facilities (+)
• Active Transportation (+)

The Plan also took into consideration changing demographic trends, growth and the City’s Climate Change Framework.

The City’s Asset Management Planning Process is built on a robust framework of formal plans, policies and strategies, which details specific guiding principles, business practices, processes for continuous improvement, and defined roles and responsibilities. The City’s asset management journey has focused on leveraging innovative technologies and processes, utilizing the best available data through ongoing asset condition assessments, and implementing continuous improvements. As part of this, the City has been continually enhancing the condition assessments of its assets and proactively investing in them to ensure they provide reliable services for the community. Asset management practices move our 2024-2027 Strategic Plan forward by tracking, managing and optimizing the quality and reliability of infrastructure for the community.

Richmond Hill’s principles and commitments to asset management planning are outlined in the City's updated Asset Management Policy, which was approved by Council on June 5, 2024. The Asset Management Policy conforms to the prescribed requirements in O. Reg. 588/17. The Policy establishes the City’s sound asset management principles, including fiscal responsibility, consideration of risk, alignment with the 2024-2027 Strategic Plan and Official Plan, utilizing asset management to inform capital programming and the commitment to share the Asset Management Plan with the public. These principles are integrated with ongoing capital life cycle asset interventions, recommended through the City’s Asset Management Plans.

The 2021 Asset Management Plan, 2023 State of Infrastructure Report and 2024 Asset Management Plan are the result of recent advancements in the City’s asset management planning capabilities and the Enterprise Asset Management system (EAM).

The EAM system is a web-based software application developed and maintained in-house by City Staff using important information from across our service areas. The EAM includes the inventory of all City-owned assets and their status such as condition, replacement values, life cycle capital interventions, service levels, risk framework and much more. It also provides current and forecasted information on our assets to support evidence-based infrastructure investment decision-making. Using the application, we are able to use the current asset information and forecast the impacts of different funding levels on condition and service levels and prioritize City projects such that funding is used as efficiently as possible on work that matters most to the City.