Treasurer Michael Beal

Town Council spent over 20 minutes Monday discussing whether to award a $43,200 contract to a company from London, Ontario to create Tantramar’s first asset management plan (AMP).

Treasurer Michael Beal explained that the federal government requires municipalities to have asset management plans in order to qualify for money from the Canada Community-Building Fund (CCBF) — formerly known as the gas tax fund.

The CCBF provides more than $2.5 billion each year to over 3,700 communities across the country to help pay for capital projects such as roads, bridges and culverts, drinking water facilities, storm and sanitary sewers and parks.

This year Tantramar is getting $606,709 from the fund as its share of the more than $50 million that New Brunswick municipalities are receiving.

Beal said that asset management plans are a tool that helps municipalities calculate the value and costs of their assets, keep track of how much they’re depreciating and figure out how much money to set aside to maintain, repair and replace them.

He recommended that at its meeting next week, council award the $43,200 contract to PSD Citywide, the firm that created Sackville’s first asset management plan in 2018.

He noted that Dorchester’s plan was created by Crandall Engineering that same year.

More quotes

Councillor Barry Hicks

“I’m wondering whey we didn’t get three quotes on this,” Councillor Barry Hicks said. “I know we had them do it last time, but we don’t know what the prices are coming in at from other companies if we don’t get extra quotes.”

“We chose them again because we selected them in 2018 to implement it,” Beal said.

He added that it’s unlikely that other quotes would be any cheaper.

“They have all our data, our data is in the cloud with them already and that’s why we chose them,” he said.

“They had written Sackville’s AMP, which does make it cheaper because out of all the assets that we have within the software, Sackville’s represents 80 to 90% of the assets that are in play.”

Councillors Matt Estabrooks and Bruce Phinney also expressed concern about the lack of multiple quotes.

Beal pointed out that it’s not required under provincial rules to get multiple quotes for procurement contracts under $134,000, but said it would be council’s prerogative to ask for more quotes.

Plan needed by fall

Municipal assets that would be included in PSD Citywide plan

Beal said,  however, that the London, Ontario firm had agreed to start creating the plan in March and have it completed by the end of August when it will be needed to help draft the capital budget for next year.

He said he wasn’t sure the August deadline could be met if there’s a delay while he solicits other quotes.

At council’s suggestion, he agreed to seek information from other municipalities on the recent costs of their asset management plans and present the information to council at its meeting next week.

During the public question period, Beal explained that the plans need to be redone every three years because the cost of maintaining and reconstructing assets changes over time as does the asset mix.

He noted, for example, that in 2018, Sackville did not have the water retention ponds that are now in place for flood control.

“They were a brand new asset,” he said, “that would need to be included in future asset management planning.”

‘Fingers on the pulse’

Mayor Andrew Black

Mayor Black acknowledged that the federal government forced asset management plans on municipalities.

“I would argue that the asset management plan is a good thing,” he said, “in the end because it shows us what we have, what is depreciating…so kind of keeping our fingers on the pulse of what we should be addressing as far as infrastructure replacement within the community.”

To read Beal’s written presentation to council and the proposed AMP contract, click here.

For previous coverage in 2018, click here.