The Total Operating Ratio Trend measures whether service fees are sufficient to cover the cost of operations and maintenance prior to consideration of capital investment needs.

Having the ability to cover operations and maintenance expenses with service fees is critical to financial stability and to manage trends of deferred maintenance of infrastructure assets. This ratio should be at an initial target of 2.0 to provide pay-as-you-go (PAUG) funding for routine repair, rehabilitation, and annual infrastructure asset replacement. This target will be adjusted based on an Asset Management program currently underway.