The City of Regina faced the challenge of balancing sustainability, service quality and financial reality in a high-stakes electric bus decision. Learn how they used lifecycle analysis to navigate the trade-offs without sacrificing any of the three. Watch the webinar.
“At the heart of the discussion is a deceptively simple idea: all infrastructure decisions are trade-offs between service, risk, and cost.”
This core insight from a recent NAMS Canada webinar underscores the strategic challenge facing municipalities and First Nations communities across Canada: how do we deliver critical services sustainably, affordably, and with an acceptable level of risk?
Led by Erica Frank, of both the City of Regina and NAMS Canada, and Troy Sykes of NAMS Canada, the webinar illustrated how a structured approach to asset management centered around full life cycle cost analysis can support better long-term decisions.
“We provide services to our customers through our assets,” Troy explained. “But every service has a cost and every decision carries risk. The goal of asset management is to find the most appropriate balance of those three, both at the project level and across the entire community.”
This principle came to life through Erica’s case study from Regina, where city council debated whether to move forward with the purchase of 20 electric buses.
“The purchase was aligned with both our Transit Master Plan and our Energy and Sustainability Framework,” said Erica. “But it wasn’t just about sustainability—it had to make financial sense. Council needed to understand the trade-offs involved.”
Despite pressure to limit tax increases, Regina chose to proceed with the electric fleet, supported by federal funding and a clear understanding of long-term life cycle costs.
“Cutting the bus order would have disrupted service levels and delayed our emissions goals,” Erica added. “The data helped council see the full picture.”
Both presenters emphasized the need to move beyond siloed thinking—emphasizing asset management is not just about spreadsheets—it’s about telling the full story of how services are delivered, what they cost over time, and what risks communities are willing to accept.
“The asset management plan tells us what we need to spend and when,” Troy noted, “but it must feed into the long-term financial plan which tells us whether we can afford it. If we can’t, that’s when we have the real conversation: Do we lower service, accept higher risk, or look for more funding?”
The NAMS+ tool, which supports municipalities in mapping and modeling these decisions, plays a vital role in enabling this dialogue. From Toronto to Vancouver, and increasingly in Indigenous and rural communities, these frameworks are helping leaders make evidence-based, locally grounded decisions. As Erica reminded the audience:
“What works for Regina won’t work for every community. But what every community needs is a way to look at the big picture and ask: are we making informed, sustainable choices?”
For infrastructure asset managers across Canada, that’s not just a technical challenge—it’s a leadership opportunity.