By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle

Oliver is looking to leap into the 21st century when it comes to asset management by creating a technological base for all its data.

Kelly Mercer, director of operations for the town explained at the April 22, 2025 council meeting that the town is looking to “purchase a piece of software that is a database so any new capital projects we do gets input into that database and it basically builds a lifespan for that.”

He explained that this software for the town can be a single place for the town’s data on their assets, so that they can track, create lifespan projections, budget, and account for inflation among other things.

Mercer explained they are looking to do road, storm, water and sewer to start. Then as the database is built, the town can add things like parks and trees, and manage it as a “living document”.

Although Mercer was quick to note that the database could still be about three years away from full operation, he did explain that this is the future plan for Oliver.

The discussion came after Elio Ibrahim, Senior Advisor at PSD Citywide presented a report on an asset management program to Oliver council.

Ibrahim explained that right across Canada municipalities are struggling with the rising maintenance costs for aging infrastructure, the pressure to do more with limited budgets, and the difficulty planning for the long-term without accurate data.

“Asset management ensures we get the most value from infrastructure by aligning budget, risk, and service delivery over time,” he explained in his presentation.

He also pointed out that there is a difference between having an asset management plan and an asset management program.

“An asset management plan is a snapshot in time. . . Having a program in place will allow you to update these plans more effectively and more efficiently moving forward into the future.”

The distinction was brought up in response to councillor David Mattes questioning what happened to the previous work the town had done on asset management.

“It’s a great thing, we do need it, absolutely support it. But I just want to let you know this is not the first go around for this,” Mattes said.

“We did receive the previous asset management plan that was completed, we did integrate that plan into our analyses, and then used the data from that plan.”

But the previous work conducted was just a plan that they can now try and integrate into a program for the future; and a big part of that program could be the centralized repository software Mercer mentioned.

Ibrahim further noted that by their recommendation by 2027, Oliver should aim to:

  • Maintain a centralized, reliable asset inventory;
  • Use lifecycle models to prioritize spending;
  • Set clear, transparent service levels;
  • Align capital planning with risk and data;
  • Engage the public in infrastructure decisions.

In Ibrahim’s report, Oliver received a grade of mostly basic, with some intermediate grades in seven key elements of asset management, such as asset information, organization and people, strategy and planning among others.

The grades were basic, intermediate and advanced; the town did not receive any advanced grades in any category.

Following the discussion on asset management, the 2025 Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) Asset Management Planning Grant was discussed.

This grant would support 50 per cent of a project cost for supporting the development of the town’s asset management program, up to $25,000.

A full grant proposal will be discussed at the next council meeting on May 12, but if successful the grant money would go towards phase 2, the data focused section of the Town’s Asset Management Program that is coming into focus.

This would include financial support for data disaggregation, consolidation and refinement, the development of a data governance policy and data management procedures.

Throughout all the phases of this program there will be a need for analysis and work to refine the datasets that will form the centralized repository of data management, and if successful the grant money could contribute towards policies around that.