- The Ontario government…

- The Ontario government funds only 2-3% of Conservation Authorities. They belong to the communities and municipalities of Ontario.

-The CAs are staffed by experts, and monitored by boards consisting of local representatives. Together these partnerships safeguard the natural heritage that keeps our ecosystems functioning.

-Those ecosystems protect our headwaters, our underground water sources, our ability to absorb floodwaters, and the health of all of us that is connected to that water and to those ecosystems.

-There is a fundamental gap in the thinking of the government of Ontario in its focus on development. It is Ecology, the science of how all living elements of the planet fit together. Conservation Authorities are trained in Ecology. They understand how vital it is to maintain the ecosystem around water systems in order to maintain and protect them- and to protect us from water contamination and flooding.

-A single board in Toronto chaired by a cabinet minister whose loyalty is to a platform that has so far shown remarkable ignorance in natural science is certainly not able to determine the course of 7 CAs incorporating hugely different ecosystems within each area. With all due respect, that is incredible hubris and perhaps even more so, rampant greed.

-Very simply, our natural heritage MUST be monitored by knowledge, by science, and by local specialists and communities who know the area, know the communities, and know the waters, the plants and the species dependent upon the incredibly complex life forms that maintain the water that sustains us.

-Those Conservation Authorities belong to us- not to you. They are funded by us-not by you. Most importantly, they are trusted by us- you are not. You do not have the knowledge or the understanding of Ecology, or, as your previous legislation has amply demonstrated, ecosystem science. Bill 5 has been a travesty of science, as is Bill 68 Schedule 3. I call upon you to amend the former, and to withdraw Bill 68 Schedule 3 completely.