Gordian Logo RSMeans Data from Gordian
City of Mississauga Improves Asset Management and Capital Planning

City of Mississauga Improves Asset Management and Capital Planning

6 million

approximate square feet of area



CAD $2.3 billion

approximate replacement value of building and site assets



CAD $40 million

average annual facilities and property management budget for the next 10 years


“As the City of Mississauga continues to grow, and our infrastructure continues to age, we need to make informed and well-timed decisions to maintain our assets.”
Darlene Utarid, Manager of Facilities Planning & Accessibility, City of Mississauga

The City

With more than 830,000 residents, the City of Mississauga is one of the largest and fastest-growing major cities in Canada. Mississauga is a family-oriented city, offering a variety of sports, leisure and arts facilities; it has multiple community centers and a city center in the downtown area with a variety of retail, entertainment, and residential spaces. Numerous Fortune 500 companies are located in the city as well. With the rising population and city growth, many new buildings have been constructed within the last decade.

The Challenge

The Facilities & Property Management Department of Mississauga lacked complete condition information on the buildings within its portfolio and required a facility asset management program that would offer the means to manage major capital redevelopment projects. It required a system that would allow it to manage building asset information, take advantage of portfolio analysis and reporting capabilities, and access a database for facility condition information for various building and asset types in the portfolio such as fire stations, libraries and transit. Lastly, the solution needed to have capabilities for facility capital budget development, lifecycle planning for building assets, and forecasting for long-term capital plans.

  • Budget based on historical averages instead of concrete data.
  • Requests not supported with validated costs for deferred maintenance projects.
  • Insufficient information to enable effective prioritization of requests.

The Solution

The City of Mississauga began using the VFA Facility Condition Assessment service in 2009/2010, to improve its assessments, process mapping, ranking and budgets. The project was completed in phases. The team first conducted assessments on a sample of the city’s buildings, and the results were presented to key stakeholders for buy-in and final approval. Next, they performed assessments on the remaining facilities within the portfolio. A total of 228 buildings were assessed covering over 423,942 square feet of area. The final phase of the project defined best practice procedures to follow to maintain data integrity, add new assets, modify assets and more.

  • Detailed assessments on condition, age and lifecycle of buildings and systems.
  • Assessments of on-site elements included lighting, paving, and water.
  • Phased project approach for smooth stakeholder engagement.

The Results

After the completion of the project in 2009/2010, Mississauga found that the replacement value of the building and site assets was just under CAD $1.3 billion. Today, this value has increased to over CAD $2 billion.

Using assessment data and the VFA solution as a decision tool, the city runs funding scenarios and prioritizes projects, turning the results into defensible capital plans. The city has been diligent in keeping up with facility assessments, and when new construction is completed or a building is acquired, those buildings are assessed and added to the VFA database. The City of Mississauga now has the detailed facility information it needs to develop accurate capital plans and budgets for its portfolio.

  • Increased visibility and insight into comprehensive facility data.
  • Objective prioritization of capital projects.
  • Data-based and site verified, defensible capital plans.
  • Defined best practices for moving forward.

About Gordian

Gordian is the leading provider of Building Intelligence™ Solutions, delivering unrivaled insights, robust technology and expert services to fuel customers’ success through all phases of the building lifecycle. Gordian created Job Order Contracting (JOC) and the industry-standard RSMeans Data. We empower organizations to optimize capital investments, improve project performance and minimize long-term operating expenses.