Having reasonable and defensible replacement costs for both enhanced and natural assets can help local governments:
- Estimate the costs of maintaining existing assets and of creating and/or maintaining acquired assets in the future
- Guide short and long-term decision-making related to how best to invest and allocate available resources to different asset types to provide important community services while also building resilience to climate change, and
- Inform ecosystem compensation negotiations and requirements when removal has been identified as unavoidable and replacement is required.
Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) retained Grounded Solutions, Dougan Ecology and Green Analytics to develop and update 50-year lifecycle replacement cost estimates for over 25 natural and enhanced asset types based on realistic assumptions and lifecycle activities, as well as current and actual costs from local municipalities, agencies and industry practitioners.
The full report and outcomes has been posted by CVC here: https://cvc.ca/document/natural-and-enhanced-asset-lifecycle-and-replacement-costing-2025/
Although the initial investment in creating/ stablishing natural assets can be substantial, once they are established, the longer-term costs of maintaining them in good condition tend to be limited. Furthermore, barring catastrophic events, these assets never need to be replaced and will continue to provide services indefinitely with limited reinvestment required.
PHOTOS: Former Guelph Reformatory Lands CREDIT: Grounded Solutions.