Levels of Service Development

Levels of service, in the context of this Asset Management Plan, are high level summary statements that outline the quality of services that the Town is striving to provide customers. Generally, service levels relate to quality, quantity, reliability, responsiveness, health and safety, environmental stewardship, and cost, and are defined to help meet customer expectations. Performance indicators and targets are

commonly used to describe, quantify, and communicate the services that the public expect to receive and relate expected levels of service into the cost required to provide the services.

For most service providers, levels of service (formally or informally established and communicated) are guided by a combination of regulatory requirements, guidelines, by-laws, and policies and procedures. In many cases, levels of service are also implied based on past precedence, community pressure, and system design. However, the Asset Management Plan requires that levels of service be formalized and supported through a framework of performance measures, targets, and timeframes to achieve targets. The objective of the formalized level of service statements and performance measure framework is to assess if the existing infrastructure and funding is able to meet the desired levels of service over the planning period, or identify where actions are needed to enable the assets to provide the desired levels of service.

Given the numerous assets that are involved in providing a complex range of water, wastewater, storm, and transportation services, an organization such as the Town of Innisfil could effectively incorporate hundreds of different performance indicators as part of its overall asset management plan. However, in order to get useful information from performance indicators, there needs to be a framework that logically links asset data and performance indicators to the performance indicator user (or group of users). Each individual performance indicator user will only have an interest in a very small subset of the total volume of asset data and performance indicators. A framework to organize and arrange performance indicators is required to begin the process of agreeing on a standard and consistent suite of infrastructure

management related performance indicators. 3.1.1 Level of Service Development Framework

Levels of service can be defined at several stakeholder levels. At the highest level, levels of service relate to overarching policy statements – for example, “To provide our customers with clean, safe drinking water through the operation and maintenance of our drinking water systems in a manner that adheres to all applicable legislation and regulations”. These policy statements are then broken down into utility goals, which must be met to fulfill policy commitments – for example, “provide reliable service”.

Customers define levels of service in terms of qualitative outcomes – “When I turn on my tap there is clean water”, for example. Customer levels of service are defined at a finer level of detail than levels of service goals, but are still qualitative. Agencies must “translate” these expectations into technical objectives and actual measures (key performance indicators) and targets. These key performance

indicators enable staff to measure and communicate their performance in tangible and quantifiable terms, and to prioritize actions and activities that will improve performance. The following figure illustrates this level of service hierarchy.

Figure 3-1 Level of Service Hierarchy

3.1.2 Existing Levels of Service

Services provided by the Town of Innisfil are guided by the Town’s Strategic Plan, “Inspiring Innisfil 2020”. Inspiring Innisfil 2020 includes the following:

Our Actions

We will focus on creating a united community and consider our actions through the Triple Bottom Line: Environment, People, Economy.

Our Promise

We are committed to deliver core services in an efficient and effective manner, fulfilling our responsibilities, and will undertake regular reviews to meet our customers’ expectations. Although the Town does not have existing, formally established Levels of Service, it does report on

several key performance indicators, it does provide guidance to levels of service within the Drinking Water Quality Management System and it does use Standard Operating Procedures to establish a framework of expectations. These performance indicators were incorporated into the levels of service proposed to the Town where possible.

Since 2000, the Town of Innisfil has been participating in the Municipal Performance Measurement Program. This is a mandatory performance measurement program launched by the Ontario government designed to promote local government transparency and accountability. Municipalities are required to report MPMP results to the province through the Financial Information Return (FIR) and must also publish results for local taxpayers.

Summary Statements

Levels of Service Goals

Customer Expectations for Levels of Service

The Town also reports on several performance measures in its rate-based and tax-based operating budgets. These measures provide an overall picture of system performance to stakeholders. 3.1.3 Development of Levels of Service

The Levels of Service for the Town of Innisfil were developed for each of the following asset categories: Water Services – Water Distribution and Treatment

Wastewater Services – Wastewater Collection and Treatment Road Services - Stormwater Collection, and Roads Network

For each of the asset classes, an overarching policy statement, to guide all further levels of service development, was defined. These summary statements are as follows:

Table 3-1 Levels of Service Summary Statements Infrastructure Asset

Category

Summary Statement

Water services The Corporation of the Town of Innisfil is committed to providing our customers with clean, safe drinking water through the operation and maintenance of our drinking water systems in a manner that adheres to all applicable legislation and regulations.

Wastewater services Through best management practices and technological advancements, Innisfil Wastewater division is committed to maintaining the health of our environment and protecting Lake Simcoe and its watershed for all of us to enjoy.

Road Services Through best management practices and technological advancements, Innisfil Roads division is committed to providing affordable, well-managed and safe traffic flow while contributing to the environment and quality of community life. Then, levels of service goals – applicable to all infrastructure asset categories, were defined. These goals include:

Provide Service Reliability

Provide Adequate infrastructure Capacity Protect Public Health and Safety

Protect the Environment

Provide Good Customer Service

Meet Service Requirements with Economic Efficiency.

Customer expectations for levels of service were based on these goals, and key performance indicators were defined based on customers’ expectations of levels of service.

3.1.4 Key Performance Indicators

Key performance indicators were identified based on a number of sources. The first is the Municipal Performance Measurement Program. The Town must measure the key performance indicators listed in this document and provide the data to the Province. Because the Town already has programs in place to measure these targets, it was logical to incorporate them into the official Levels of Service document. The

to the MPMP measures, because these are already being measured, it makes sense to incorporate them into the Levels of Service framework for the Asset Management Plan. The Town assesses the physical condition of bridge, culvert and roads assets on a regular basis. Several key performance indicators were developed based on these inspection results.

For water, wastewater, and storm assets, other key performance indicators were identified based on the measures used in the National Water and Wastewater Benchmarking Initiative (NWWBI). The NWWBI key performance indicators were developed with input from utilities throughout Canada and most indicators have been in place, and measured, for several years. Lastly, measures based on the Town’s characteristics (e.g. location, external maintenance contracts, etc.) were identified and incorporated into the key performance indicators.

3.1.5 Level of Service Targets

When identifying appropriate key performance indicators, identifying an appropriate target level is crucial. Without a reasonable target, the Town’s performance cannot be evaluated. For example, measuring that the Town has cycled 25% of its valves is not relevant or useful unless it is known that the target level of service was to cycle 20% of its valves. In this case the Town has exceeded its performance target. However, if the target level was 30%, the Town would not have achieved its desired performance.

Target service levels were agreed upon based on what the Town determined was reasonable considering the levels of service they currently provide, the median levels from the National Water and Wastewater Benchmarking Initiative (where available), and minimum maintenance standards. Target levels for costs were not set as it was recognized that there are many factors that will impact the Town’s ability to meet these targets.