Technical Corner

September 5, 2024

Introduction

Many of today’s recreation facility practitioners are inheriting the cost and reality of postponed maintenance of buildings and equipment. This failure has led to asset deterioration and at times unplanned asset impairment that may increase health and safety risks. The historical practice of running operations to a point of failure can no longer be the industry norm. In the past, these types of failures could be resolved with a fast injection of cash. Replacement was quick and expensive, but service was restored, and operations would resume. However, today’s marketplace no-longer offers on the shelf replacement parts and this may result in extended out of service periods.

There is no exact data on what the cost of outstanding deferred maintenance is and the ORFA offers a sobering reminder that a significant percentage of Canada’s recreational inventory is in dire shape based on age and a failure to have comprehensive maintenance and asset management plans in place. Understaffing of recreation facilities is also a root cause of the current condition of many facilities. Too many have failed to conduct detailed maintenance and upkeep beyond what might be considered basic housekeeping. This has resulted in facilities degrading faster as they continue to age.

Maintaining assets is much more affordable than replacement. Accountants typically look at maintenance and repairs as period costs requiring immediate expensing as opposed to capital improvements that become capitalized and depreciated over some future time period. The technical community often defines maintenance in terms of retaining an asset's functionality compared to repairs that restore an assets functionality. Deferred maintenance and repairs are maintenance and repair activities that were not performed when they should have. Maintenance and repairs are proactive activities of keeping fixed assets in an acceptable condition. Activities include preventive maintenance; replacement of parts, systems, or components; and other activities needed to preserve or maintain the asset.

In fairness, it is not only recreational staff who have been blindsided with these challenges as senior administrative staff have inherited the outcomes of past decisions to keep user fees and operational costs in check. The “out of sight, out of mind” attitude blinds many people from appreciating the importance of investing in ongoing maintenance. Maintenance often competes for funding with other programs and is often deferred because appropriations are not available or were redirected to other priorities or projects. Deferred maintenance is often not immediately reported. Maintenance which is deferred because of insufficient funds will result in increased safety hazards, poor service to the public, higher costs in the future, and inefficient operations.

The elephant in the room is user fees. Recreation facilities will no longer be able to justify the under calculation of the cost to produce 1-hour of field, swim or ice rental. Offering organized leagues access to our facilities to operate their programs will become a lightning rod as we move forward. Heavily subsidized recreational facility access will need to ensure that all taxpayers have fair and equal access to an asset they are paying for. [More]

The level of training and skills required by frontline staff is a critical component of reducing exposure to deferred maintenance syndrome. Recreation staff are often viewed as a low-skill position, when in reality, they are in care and control of multi-million-dollar assets which are increasingly becoming more technologically advanced. The increase in governance will also play an important role in the future. Most legislated requirements have existed for many years, what is shifting is the enforcement and compliance variables. Governing authorities are also more aware of the state of many facilities and as such will be held accountable should a significant event occur and a lack of duty of care. Facility management is key to controlling deferred maintenance through their ability to share information and present budget information that addresses these issues. Facility management must proactively complete maintenance tasks. Consider the task of not changing the HVAC filters as recommended by the manufacturer in an attempt to save maintenance funds. The longer those old filters are used, the more dust collects in your system and the harder your system has to work. This increases the risk of a major breakdown.

One of the objectives of the ORFA is to provide leadership based on membership experiences and proven solutions. Every operation is different therefore our ability to provide one plan that can be applied in every circumstance is impossible. However, what is realistic is to assist practitioners with proper planning skills and development through our various professional development and professional accreditation platforms. As part of this leadership role, the ORFA merely identifies the necessary skills required by today’s recreation practitioners based on their operations and where a member obtains these skills is left to each individual to best determine.  We only stress that obtaining these necessary skills cannot be deferred!