Facilities audit finds huge put-off maintenance tab
City of Ottawa buildings have a deferred maintenance tab worth $488 million and the estimate is likely lowballed, according to a damning audit of municipal facilities released Tuesday.
Auditor general Ken Hughes looked at the city's management of 1,073 municipal facilities, which have an average age of 40 years, and discovered that the city doesn't have a full understanding of the conditions and the amount of work that keeps being put off.
“Facility condition is not assessed on all assets, and where assessed, they have not been assessed on a timely and consistent basis with information that is complete and up-to-date,” the audit says.
Hughes made 34 recommendations to city management, which agreed with all but one regarding a citywide asset management protocol, an unusual result since it's common for management to agree with all recommendations in audits.
During an audit committee meeting, Coun. Carol Anne Meehan characterized the audit as a series of “horror stories”, and she and other councillors grilled management about how they make sure buildings are in good repair.
The audit found that the city “has continually underinvested in its facilities and that priorities outweigh available funding,” highlighting that roughly 2,000 projects to replace components that are at or near the end of their lives were to be deferred in 2020 because there wasn't enough funding to cover the $147.5 million in work.
Council approved a comprehensive asset-management policy in 2012, but the audit discovered that there hasn't been compliance with the policy since there's no co-ordination in the “siloed” nature of the city's oversight of facilities.
Dan Chenier, the general manager who oversees facility services, said the city didn't agree with the audit recommendation to fold all asset management into a citywide function because a 2016 realignment of facility responsibilities was still in a development phase.
While the audit lists 66 facilities in “crisis response,” Alain Gonthier, the associate general manager of public works and environmental services, said he doesn't agree that some facilities are in a “crisis” situation. There are facilities near the end of their lives and the city has strategies to take care of them, with safety as the top priority, Gonthier said.
The audit also found that, according to a city building condition assessment this year, three of the city's main administrative hubs — city hall on Laurier Avenue, the Mary Pitt Centre on Constellation Drive and the neighbouring Ben Franklin Place — exceeded occupancy loads in contravention of the Ontario Building Code.
The work-from-home regime that has come with the COVID-19 pandemic has since eased the space crunch for municipal public servants in those buildings. Chenier said the city is working on a long-term “mobility work plan” for staff that will address the overcapacity problems at the administrative buildings.
City manager Steve Kanellakos said he's working immediately to address the audit findings and he didn't rule out contracting outside help.
Kanellakos said often the city is “stuck” when aging facilities require substantial repairs because communities and councillors would be concerned if those public-serving buildings were mothballed.
The audit on city facilities was one of the few times that auditors butted heads with management during Hughes's seven-year run as AG.
Hughes said management was co-operative during the audit investigation, but managers delayed sending their comments until last weekend. According to Hughes, management in October took issue with the “narrative” of the audit and then sent more material in November, most of which wasn't relevant to the audit.
The facility audit was one of five audits released Tuesday, the final ones tabled by Hughes, who finishes his term at the end of the year.
Hughes said the audits had common themes that urged the city to “manage with a more critical eye”.
(The city) has continually underinvested in its facilities and … priorities outweigh available funding.