What matters

Infrastructure and Long Term Planning

Infrastructure may not be the most exciting subject, but it is one of the most important responsibilities of local government.

Our drinking water, wastewater system, stormwater system, roads, drainage and flood protection all have to work. They also have to be planned together.

I believe Harrison needs to look well beyond the next budget or the next five years.

We need to know what infrastructure we have, what condition it is in, when it will likely need major repairs or replacement, and what that work is expected to cost. We also need to understand how future development will affect the capacity of our existing systems.

Long term planning also means coordinating projects. If a road is going to be rebuilt or repaved, we should know whether water, sewer, stormwater or other work will be needed underneath that road in the years ahead. Good planning can help avoid doing work twice and spending taxpayers' money unnecessarily.

Harrison has infrastructure master plans and other studies that should help guide these decisions. I believe Council needs to understand those plans, ask questions about the assumptions behind them, and make sure they are kept current as conditions change.

My work with the Vancouver Park Board included managing inspection and replacement programs and maintaining condition records for public assets. That experience taught me the importance of knowing what you own, what condition it is in and planning for replacement before something fails.

For me, infrastructure comes before projects that would be nice to have.

We need to take care of the essentials, plan far enough ahead and make decisions today that will still make sense years from now.