At their regular meeting yesterday, Council directed City administration to apply for the Asset Management Capacity Building Cohort program organized by the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA), Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA), and Infrastructure Asset Management Alberta (IAMA).
Council also directed administration to commit staff to participate in the program to advance the City’s asset management program, and to commit financial support from the municipal budget toward staff travel and accommodation costs.
“Council supports this initiative because it provides an opportunity for municipalities in the region to strengthen inter-municipal collaboration, extend a regional focus to asset management, and support the consideration of asset management processes into inter-municipal and regional decision-making,” said Mayor Grant Creasey. “Also, municipalities within a region are also more likely to have similar infrastructure and service delivery priorities, and taking part in this initiative can help develop synergies on areas of mutual concern.”
This project will include periodic in-person workshops to be hosted on a rotational basis by participating municipalities, as well as more frequent conference calls.
Participants will operationalize learnings within their municipalities throughout the project period by engaging others in their organizations in the development of asset management policies, internal teams, etc.
There is no fee to participate in the cohort. Group learning activities and support from the team and asset management experts are provided free of charge for the duration of the project.
-Submitted by the City of Lacombe