What are natural assets?
Natural assets are one of Saanich’s nine asset types and are defined as “natural resources that contribute to the provision of municipal services to the community”.
We are developing a complete list of Saanich’s natural assets as part of the Natural Assets Inventory project.
Natural assets are a part of a broader category known as green infrastructure. Saanich also owns other types of green infrastructure, such as rain gardens and stormwater ponds, that will be included in one of the Asset Management Plans for the eight engineered asset types.
Natural Asset Management
For all our assets, including engineered and natural assets, the goal of asset management is the same – sustainable service delivery. This involves balancing levels of service, risk and costs.
Similar to engineered assets, natural assets enable the provision of municipal services, such as Parks Services and Stormwater Management Services.
Unlike engineered assets, natural assets typically also provide one or more co-benefits that enhance the liveability and resilience of the community, such as air purification, carbon sequestration, temperature regulation and many others.
Together, the municipal services and co-benefits enabled by our natural assets are known as “ecosystem services”, with the focus of natural asset management being on the sustainable delivery of our municipal services.
Together, the municipal services and co-benefits enabled by our natural assets are known as “ecosystem services”. The focus of natural asset management is the sustainable delivery of our municipal services.
Natural asset management planning considers the unique features of natural assets as compared with engineered assets, such as:
- Potential to provide or support multiple municipal services at lower cost.
- Potential to provide co-benefits.
- Potential to be more resilient and adaptable to climate change.
- Lifecycles are typically much longer or indefinite.
- Lifecycle phases (i.e. acquisition, maintenance, monitoring, and restoration) are typically different from engineered assets (i.e. acquisition, operations, maintenance, replacement/renewal and disposal).
Integration With Other Saanich Initiatives
A key element of Saanich’s natural asset management planning approach is that it is integrated with other Saanich initiatives.
Natural asset management planning includes the foundational step of developing an inventory and then developing an asset management plan to support long-term financial planning.
In addition to internal integration, collaboration with external stakeholders is an important part of natural asset management planning, because Saanich does not have jurisdictional control over all the natural assets that support municipal service delivery.
Natural Assets Inventory Project
Saanich’s Natural Assets Inventory project is currently underway and is planned for completion by mid-2024. Staff has retained Natural Assets Initiative (NAI) to provide specialized consulting services for project. NAI is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to “make natural asset management a mainstream practice across Canada, and in support of this, for local governments to accept and use the methodologies and tools in standard ways across the country”. NAI has completed most of the existing natural asset inventories for local governments across Canada. Further information about NAI, and their completed natural asset inventory projects, is found here: NAI | Natural Assets Initiative – Making Nature Count (mnai.ca)
Funding Acknowledgement
Saanich has been approved for grant funding for this project in the amount of up to $50,000 under the Canada Community-Building Fund – 2022 Strategic Priorities Fund.
Next Steps and Timing
