October 15, 2018

Governments across Canada are focusing on sustainable service delivery – delivering core services in a socially, economically and environmentally responsible manner. Natural assets, such as wetlands, forests, and creeks, provide many of the same services to communities as engineered assets but are generally not accounted for or undervalued--omitting significant dimensions of a community’s financial risk.

The Municipal Natural Assets Initiative (MNAI), has developed a methodology to help local governments identify, value and manage natural assets. To test and refine this approach, five pilot communities were selected in communities across Canada: The City of Nanaimo, BC, Town of Grand Forks, BC, District of West Vancouver, BC, Town of Oakville, ON, and the Region of Peel, ON.

This decision-maker summary provides a high-level overview of each pilot project and their key findings. Overall, these first municipal natural asset management pilot projects provide evidence that natural assets are a key component of sustainable service delivery, and are cost-effective and resilient.

Detailed technical reports for each pilot project are available on the mnai.ca site.