Service Spotlight Series: Asset Management

By City of Cranbrook

Over the past few years, Asset Management has become a core part of how the City of Cranbrook does its work. While the term can sound like a buzzword, it simply means taking a thoughtful, proactive approach to caring for the physical and natural assets the City owns — from roads and water systems to parks, buildings, and vehicles.

This Service Spotlight series is designed to make Asset Management easier to understand and show how this quietly guides the everyday work the city does on behalf of the community.

At its core, Asset Management is about getting the best value from what the city owns by balancing cost, risk, and performance over the full life of each asset. Cranbrook’s Asset Management Strategy brings together years of planning, data, and best practices into a shared approach that helps departments make consistent, informed decisions.

By focusing on regular condition assessments and long-term planning, the city can maintain and replace infrastructure at the right time, reduce risks, and plan responsibly — supporting reliable services today and for generations to come.

In this spotlight, we focus on our buildings, fleet, and equipment.

The city looks after a wide range of buildings and facilities, including City Hall, the RCMP detachment building, the Cranbrook Fire Hall, Western Financial Place, the Memorial and Kinsmen Arenas, the Cranbrook Public Library building, and the Public Works facility on Cobham Avenue.

Many of these facilities are aging, and construction costs continue to rise. That makes it important for us to understand each building, track the condition of the major pieces inside, and plan for when repairs or replacements may be needed. Each year, we continue to improve how we collect and use this information so we can make the best decisions possible.

Our Asset Management Strategy helps guide this work. It gives staff a consistent way to track building information, plan maintenance, and look ahead instead of only reacting when something breaks. Public Works has built this into its day-to-day work, with staff regularly adding inspection and maintenance information into the system based on their trade knowledge.

That updated information helps identify which projects and upgrades should be considered during council’s budget discussions. Budgeting for this work is challenging, especially as construction costs continue to rise faster than many other everyday costs. The projects brought forward each year are not chosen at random. They are based on data from condition assessments, maintenance records, and long-term planning.

The goal is to make the best use of the dollars available and complete the work that will provide the greatest benefit to the community.

We also know our system is not perfect. More work is still needed in areas like water, sewer, and parks. We have also had unexpected issues over the years, including the roof structure issues at the Memorial Arena in late 2023 (right). With the stronger information collection practices now in place, issues like this are more likely to be identified earlier. We will continue making steady improvements to help reduce these kinds of surprises in the future.

The same approach applies to the city’s fleet of vehicles and equipment. The city has used its Fleet Management Policy for several years, and it continues to work well. Like our facilities process, it helps staff keep information up to date so we can make informed decisions about what should be repaired, what can continue to be used, and what needs to be replaced.

Whether we are talking about buildings, vehicles, or equipment, the goal is the same: to understand what we have, know what condition it is in, and plan ahead so the city can make responsible choices. This helps us focus available funding on the work that matters most, reduce unexpected problems where we can, and continue providing reliable services to the community.

Looking ahead, we will round out our series around how Asset Management shapes and directs the work we do. You’ll learn about how it influences our decisions around our spray irrigation site and lagoons. We’ll also continue to share some great successes we’ve had and how these efforts have helped us develop better processes and work more efficiently for you.

You can find all our previous Service Spotlight Series articles, and find more information about Asset Management HERE.

Lead image: Repairs being made to the roof of Western Financial Place in 2020.  e-KNOW file photos

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