Community Asset Management - Firebird Business Consulting

Firebird uniquely applies its private sector experience in corporate planning and business management with its municipal consulting services providing a ‘business consulting’ perspective of municipal finance and planning focused on sustainable and resilient communities. This allows Firebird to effectively address three of the most challenging issues for municipalities: increasing infrastructure funding deficits; limited funding to address the problem; and, growth pressures that add to capital infrastructure costs.

Firebird consists of a team of 10 consultants with corporate experience in community planning, infrastructure management, capital planning, finance, restructuring, and project management. Members of our team have successfully worked with small towns of 500 people to metropolitan areas of 1.3 million people providing asset management, strategic planning, capacity assessments, and growth management related services.

Doug Ramage is the lead municipal management consultant for Firebird Business Consulting. Doug has 10+ years experience in community development, 7+ years in large engineering and management consulting firms, and 3+ years in business development and entrepreneurship. Doug’s experience includes municipal engineering, urban planning, designing public consultation, and strategy development across the Prairies. Doug has led the development of asset management plans, capital planning consultations, infrastructure master plans, land use studies, feasibility assessments, and policy development that assists leadership in making informed decisions for their communities.

ASSET MANAGEMENT & CAPITAL PLANNING:

Asset management requires a multi-disciplinary approach based on risk management, understanding financial impacts, engineering, economics, community planning, and data management.

Firebird consultants are business strategists with experience in risk management, finance, engineering, economics, community planning, and data management.

Our process unlocks the experience and knowledge of your administration and community providing knowledge and insight for municipalities looking to elevate their capacity in managing infrastructure assets and tackling strategic decision making challenges.

Firebird’s approach to asset management is based on:

Discovery

· Understand the current condition of assets 

· Where are the greatest needs – priorities and risk

· Understand level-of-service expectations

· Understanding hazard, risk, and vulnerabilities of infrastructure

· Identifying organizational capacity 

Clarity

· How much money is needed to address the maintenance needs and replacement costs

· Provide direction on data-based decision-making informing annual budgets and capital plans

· Alignment of asset management with strategic planning documents and direction

· Infrastructure planning requirements to support growth and change

· Role of policy and governance

Transparency

· A way to monitor asset condition to evaluate the cost-benefit of budget allocations.

· Demonstrate the value of infrastructure investments and due diligence to ratepayers 

· Understanding the business case for infrastructure investment

· Measuring and monitoring performance of the plan

Capital Infrastructure Requirements

An asset management plan provides the necessary information to develop a capital plan based on infrastructure requirements.

A long-term capital plan forecasts the required infrastructure capital to manage growth and maintain continuity in municipal service delivery while balancing affordability with the expected services to community. The capital plan provides the framework for long-term infrastructure planning and fiscal management through:

· Supporting better decision making through quality data

· Identifying strategic investments based on business case models

· Minimizing fiscal risks through multi-year budgeting for fiscal sustainability

· Increasing grant funding preparedness by early identification of capital priorities

· Infrastructure planning and strategy

· Capital planning that prioritize and sequence infrastructure project development

A Municipal Capital Plan and Community Capital Plan is based on understanding the current and future infrastructure needs and the available funding streams to address those needs based on timing and required investment.

The Municipal Capital Plan and Community Capital Plan is driven by community, Council, and administrative priorities that set the direction for sustainable infrastructure investments through fiscal management by developing a consistent and structured decision-making process for all capital projects, including objective prioritization of proposed projects including consideration towards community objectives based on community need for service.

Interested in discovering more about your municipality? Firebird Business Consulting Ltd.provides a free 2 hour no obligation session designed to assist clients assess priority areas, identify limitations to achieving objectives, establishing and defining goals, and defining the next steps.

CORE SERVICES

· Fiscal Impact  and Financial Management

· Asset Management and Capital Planning

· Strategic Community Planning

· Emergency Preparedness and Continuity Planning 

· Public Sector Workshops and Training