STAFF REPORT: OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR ESTABLISHING A NATURAL ASSET INVENTORY PROGRAM

BACKGROUND:

Natural assets that provide benefit to View Royal can include:

• Creeks and riparian areas
• Lakes, ponds, wetlands and marshes
• Forests and trees,
• Coastal areas and beaches
• Open spaces

Below is a list of initiatives and projects that staff are currently undergoing that will help inform on the development of a natural asset management plan:

Natural Asset Initiative (NAI): Natural Assets Roadmap

The Town conducted the NAI Natural Assets Roadmap: a worksheet that helps local governments understand their current state of natural asset management and to document short to medium term actions to make progress on natural asset management.

Through this exercise, five key priorities were identified (in order below) to successfully integrate natural asset management into the Town’s core operations:

1. Adopt an AM Policy that includes explicit natural asset language.
2. Update the AM Program Strategy to include natural asset management objectives, steps, and timelines.
3. Appoint a Natural Assets lead within the AM Working Group to function as staff’s ambassador for ongoing natural asset management improvements.
4. Develop and implement a resourcing (level of service) plan to ensure that natural asset management is sustainably integrated into the Town’s core operations.
5. Establish a service inventory to track the performance of natural assets against the Town’s input efforts.

Generally, and as identified in the NAI roadmap process, natural asset management programming is recommended to take a “form follows function” approach: that the objectives and functional requirements of the program be developed first before initiating individual parts of a natural asset management program. In this particular case, developing a natural asset inventory should be predicated on the Asset Management Program Strategy and an established asset management policy, closely followed by appropriate resourcing.

Natural Asset Management Planning

Staff have already suggested for this work to commence in 2029/2030 of which was presented to Council on March 3, 2026 as part of the upcoming 2026-2030 Financial Plan deliberations (Asset Management Program Improvements Project N-111, $20,000).

Natural Asset Management Policy Development

AM policy is necessary to formalize View Royal’s clear mandate and commitment to asset management, including towards environmental stewardship and service delivery through natural asset management. The Town does not have an adopted AM Policy to date, but policy development work is underway and will be presented to Council in mid to late 2026.

Finally, the NAI roadmap emphasizes the benefits of leveraging other master planning documents to develop future natural asset management inventories at a significantly lower cost. Such opportunities did arise for the Town that will help inform a first-generation natural asset management plan. Much of this work has already started: the Town holds several relevant natural asset datasets that can be collated into a natural assets inventory, including the Sustainable Infrastructure Replacement Plan, and additional data received as part of the Drainage Master Plan Update, and Urban Forest Strategy initiatives. The upcoming Parks and Trails master plan (year) may also provide important data that could be easily imported into the natural asset inventory.

ANALYSIS:

Current Asset Management Program and Inclusion of Natural Assets

The Asset Management Program Improvements Project N-111 identifies the following projects over the next 5 years:

1. Develop asset management plans for critical assets (one asset per year, 2026-2029 to start) including but not limited to:

• Bridges
• Sewer Pump Stations
• Roadways
• Electrical
• Fleet, Facilities, Drainage, Parks.

2. Complete asset management training for staff and Council (2026-2029)
3. Develop asset management plan including programming for the inventory (natural assets 2029-2030)

Critical assets (such as bridges, pump stations, and traffic signals) are prioritized in the program because failure of these systems (1) are at a high risk of having a direct consequence to health and life, and (2) can result in significantly higher replacement costs and maintenance expenditures.

As a result, staff recommend maintaining the current trajectory of project N-111: develop AM plans for critical assets, but also continuing in the peripheral with collecting natural asset data through other ancillary projects until such data is leveraged in 2029-2030 as part of the natural asset management plan and inventory project.

Impacts to Asset Management Program, Staffing and Resources

Prioritizing a natural asset inventory ahead of the other critical assets and a natural asset management plan can entail tangible and financial risks including but not limited to:

• Unclear outcomes if the initiative proceeds without a well-defined scope in context to the overall AM Program. In other words, a natural asset inventory is not useful to the Town if there is an absence of KPI’s that is typically informed by a natural assessment management strategy
• Reduced capacity for core services as limited staff time is reallocated from operational activities.
• Delays to planned projects in the Financial Plan (capital and non-core initiatives) due to competing priorities and finite resources.

Alternative Option Should Council Wish to Accelerate a Natural Asset Inventory Project

Should Council wish to direct staff to prioritize developing a natural asset inventory ahead of other critical assets, then there are three requirements in order to allocate resources appropriately to mitigate the safety and financial risks identified above, and to ensure that the natural asset inventory is useful to the Town.

1. Shift the Natural Asset Management project from 2029-2030 to an earlier year (current budget: $20,000).
2. Retain a consultant to create a natural asset inventory, as staff do not have the resources, technology or expertise to conduct the inventory works itself. The inventory may require software upgrades as well. As a result, staff recommend a conservative estimate of $50,000 for the consultation budget. This is somewhat in line with discussions and correspondence provided at the February 17, 2026 regular Council meeting, but slightly reduced given that the Town is already undertaking some of the natural asset inventory work. Staff recommend pursuing grant opportunities to offset the costs.
3. A maximum of up to 0.25FTE of staff time would be required from time to time to appropriately project manage the development of a natural asset plan (including the inventory). Current staff capacity is full subscribed with no discretionary bandwidth, meaning this work cannot be absorbed within the current workload without impacts and risks elsewhere. Therefore, deferral of planned capital and non-capital work identified in the Financial Plan would be required.

This alternative option is not recommended by staff due to the following negative impacts:

• Increased risk to the service delivery of critical assets
• Delayed community benefits (transportation and parks improvement projects already earmarked in the Financial Plan)
• Deferral of Optimal and Discretionary projects required as a result.

Impacts and implications can be summarized as follows:

ALIGNMENT:

The recommended option aligns with the Town’s following core guiding documents as follows:

Other Policy Documents:

Natural assets are defined within the scope of the Town’s Asset Management (AM) Program. The AM Program improvement priorities are defined within the Town’s AM Strategy (received for information at the January 9, 2024 Committee of a Whole, with a recommendation that the financial implications of the AM strategy be incorporated into draft financial planning discussions). The Strategy is currently being updated to reflect recent progress and emerging priorities, such as developing a natural asset management plan.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION GOAL:

The desired level of public participation for the recommended option is: [x] Inform [ ] Consult [ ] Involve [ ] Collaborate [ ] Empower [ ] N/A

TIME CRITICAL:

Time is of the essence in anticipation of the upcoming 2026-2030 Financial Plan deliberation process.