Imagine our parklands, gardens, natural heritage features, green roofs and other green infrastructure were appreciated and managed for the services they provide and treated as the community assets that they are. GIO has been advocating for this for quite some time now, by requesting that municipalities and communities include green infrastructure in their asset management plans. We are pleased to announce that with the passing of Ontario Regulation 588/17 under the Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act, municipalities will be required to develop asset management plans for municipally owned assets – which will include green infrastructure assets.
The definition of a “municipal infrastructure asset” in the regulation reads: an infrastructure asset, including a green infrastructure asset, directly owned by a municipality or included on the consolidated financial statements of a municipality, but does not include an infrastructure asset that is managed by a joint municipal water board
Under the asset management plan section of the new regulation, it is stated that: Every municipality shall prepare an asset management plan in respect of its core municipal infrastructure assets by July 1, 2021, and in respect of all of its other municipal infrastructure assets by July 1, 2023.
GIO is hopeful that this new regulation will be supported with funding to help enable municipalities to manage green infrastructure as integral infrastructure assets. There are a few examples of Ontario municipalities that have lead the way and included green infrastructure in their asset management plans, see: