The R.M. of Morris is joining every other municipality in Manitoba in putting together an asset management plan.

Mandated by the provincial government, the plan is meant to provide full-cycle costs of owning and managing municipal infrastructure and services and ensuring they are sustainable into the future. Included in the asset management will be roads, bridges, land, drainage, culverts, buildings, and equipment.

Reeve, Ralph Groening, says a new committee has been struck and is tasked with developing a plan for the municipality. This group includes municipal department heads that will collect the necessary data and bring reports back to council.

"The public works manager, financial officer, building inspector, and fire chief will all be contributing to the data collection," added Groening. "They will review the level of service that we provide to our taxpayers, the risk involved and what kind of financial capacity we have to manage these responsibilities."

Not only does Groening feel this is a positive move for the R.M. of Morris but says it is essential.

"As a matter of fact, we have been told that in order to receive Federal Gas Tax money there will come a time in the next year or two that a successful asset management plan will be required," he explained.

The reeve expects the development process to take about 1 year.

Meantime, the R.M. of Morris was successful in obtaining a $48,000 grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Green Fund in order to offset about 80 percent of the cost of the project.