2021-03-31

Lunenburg secures $50,000 asset-management grant from feds

by KEITH CORCORAN

Lunenburg is getting a $50,000 grant from the federal government that will be spent on technology and software capacity to better manage, and make decisions about, the town's high-valued infrastructure.

The five-figure sum, funnelled to the town from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) which advocates for local government interests on a national scale, will help Lunenburg map assets and create a digital database. Mayor Matt Risser said funding through the municipal asset management program aids long-term examinations of major items over the equipment's life cycle.

"This grant, for us, formalizes that, and develops it, and enhances our planning in that area," he told LighthouseNOW in a phone interview. "The initial focus is, at least, on water and wastewater systems."

Lunenburg applied for the funding, and will receive the maximum available from the program. The subsidy covers most of the total project cost of about $62,500.

"It's incredibly beneficial to help us as we go forward," Risser added, "and it's aligned with our strategic directions about servicing, and facilities, particularly."

He wasn't sure of the current asset management system, but believed the new way will get the town into the 21st century, making it easier, for example, to pinpoint specific items and when they were built, what aspects may have been replaced and when, and at what point upgrades will be needed.

The municipal grant builds a local government's ability to be more resilient and self-sufficient, the federal Department of Infrastructure and Communities indicated in a statement released March 16.

Canada's municipalities, the FCM said in the same statement, "own nearly 60 percent of the public infrastructure that supports Canada's economy and quality of life."

"With strengthened asset management practices, they are making infrastructure investment decisions based on sound and reliable data," FCM president Garth Frizzell suggested in the statement.

Two other Lunenburg County municipalities - Chester and Mahone Bay - each received five-figures of funding from the same federal program last year to help them better understand how their utilities operate.

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