We have to find the right balance to have enough to SPEND on programs and services the community wants, REPAIR and MAINTAIN current assets, and SAVE for big replacements or unexpected events.

From 2025 onwards we have some difficult decisions to make:

• Municipal infrastructure (roads, pipes, buildings, parks including fixtures and turf, bridges to name just a few) requires ongoing maintenance ($) as well as repair and replacement work ($$). Amounts must be collected each year for these costs, in an amount that makes sense given the value of the things and their expected useful life. This is like needing to save for large household expenditures such as a new roof or a new hot water tank.
• Some of our infrastructure is approaching end of life. This is happening after a period of time in which we’ve been under-collecting for this work. This could mean costly emergency repairs or replacement, not to mention inconvenient and annoying service disruptions.
• This also means that we face some important cost pressures, even before we consider adding new things (capital projects) in the community.
• If we do build additional infrastructure, we need to not only account for the costs to build it (capital costs), but we need to financially plan for all of the operations, maintenance, repair and replacement costs in future years that are associated with it. These new cost pressures must be considered carefully.