Labour minister Seamus O’Regan has announced a federal investment of more than $1.9 million to help 46 communities in Newfoundland and Labrador implement innovative strategies to manage their municipal infrastructure.

Known as asset management, the investment will help the communities ensure that their infrastructure such as arenas, bridges, drinking water and wastewater systems, and roads are working as efficiently as possible. It will also allow them to make better investment decisions. Asset management also helps reduce risks so municipalities can provide reliable and affordable services and a high quality of life to their residents.

 Among the communities are:

• The Town of Grand Falls-Windsor. It will receive $49,997 to update its asset management plan from 2018. Through such update, Grand Falls-Windsor’s will be able to increase its capabilities to analyze its asset classes, provide training on scientific limitations of forecasting for asset management, scientifically define public infrastructure performance and levels of service and advance its asset management software capabilities.

• The Town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, the Town of Campbell, and the Town of Clarenville. They will each receive $50,000, $45,000 and $47,880 respectively to help implement a three-phase asset management initiative. The first phase will consist in creating an asset register for fixed infrastructure assets and utilizing a geographical information system. The second and the third phases will meanwhile focus on failure and probability of failure, capital and policy planning and on organizing a workshop for both the city’s council and staff capital.