It’s no secret that Prince George is full of aging infrastructure, but a new city council report is illuminating the challenge the city is facing to maintain its older assets.
The city is looking at a total of about a $16.9-million funding gap for the Average Annual Re-Investment (AAR) recommended to ensure the ongoing maintenance and operation of infrastructure.
When the annual expenditure falls short of the recommended level of re-investment, the city documents that amount as an Infrastructure Funding Gap.
The city has been calculating AAR values for major assets since 2011, but has just published an update into what that looks like in 2020.
Several factors influence these values, including improved asset inventory data, inflation rates and the amount of re-investment projects approved. (via City of Prince George)“What we have here are updated numbers,” said Adam Holmes, director of Infrastructure Services, during last night’s council meeting (Oct. 19) when he presented on the report.
“The reason that you are seeing such a big difference in those numbers, up to 36 per cent for sidewalks and walkways, is this year we decided to do a deep dive into our systems and see what those average costs are within our systems.”
The total replacement value of city-owned assets is now reaching $3.7 billion and the average age of these assets is 43 years old.
Coun. Brian Skakun called for more provincial and federal funding to help address the city’s infrastructure challenge.
“We are the economic engines of the country but there has to be more ways that we can get help from senior governments,” said Skakun.
“We can’t do it on our own and we can’t simply say ‘we have to build bridges and roads’ and charge it to the local taxpayers.”
The city does get funding from the Federal Gas Tax for infrastructure projects, which amounts to about $3.2 million annually, and has the opportunity to apply for further grant funding, but Coun. Garth Frizzell noted that those processes take a lot of extra work and also pits communities in B.C. against each other to compete for funding.
The table shows the increasing costs relative to last year's results. (via City of Prince George)“We have some serious challenges and we have a serious infrastructure gap here,” said Frizzell.
“It is not something we can fund by raising taxes so we have to slowly fix the worst pieces as they come up.”
Holmes says it has been five years since the last AAR update, but the city now plans to be updating the report on a more frequent basis and expects to update it every two years from now on.
In his report, Holmes says updated AAR values allow the City to calculate, at a high level, an appropriate level of annual investment in order to make sure our infrastructure is in good working condition.
“I think municipalities across the country struggle with these reinvestments but I think this is not something that is just coming up in the last three, four, five years -- this has been years in the making,” said Coun. Kyle Sampson.
“It’s hard for anyone to project how this is going to look until we have created this type of reporting system. It’s time to address it as we move forward and make sure we are closing that gap on reinvestments. It’s a long process ahead but it’s a long process looking back.”
The city’s reporting tools calculate replacement values and AAR values for city-owned infrastructure based on historical work, contract unit pricing, and consultants’ estimates.
