Infrastructure Asset Management: Can the Canadian Municipal Experience Help Inform Better Practices in Southeast Asia?

Abstract

Local government units (LGUs) everywhere are struggling with how to meet increasing demands for municipal services ranging from policing to recreation to the maintenance of roads, often with budgets that are not keeping pace with these demands. With the tough competition for the available funding from taxes and other fees, it is sometimes difficult for LGUs to allocate enough resources for proper management of their infrastructure assets. In Canada, this issue is exacerbated because a significant portion of the LGU infrastructure has deteriorated so much that it needs to be replaced. Since Canada is a relatively “young” country, its LGUs have been allocating a large portion of their budgets for building new infrastructure and maintaining existing infrastructure, and not for its replacement. Finding additional funding to meet replacement needs is difficult.