I live in the Kettle Creek…

I live in the Kettle Creek Conservation Authorities Watershed.

We bought our property with a dream of retiring on it and living happily ever after.

Kettle Creek Conservation Authority has miss-led us for almost ten years now.

They have made us spend over $80,000 on engineers reports and lawyers fees, fighting them.

All we wanted to do was to protect our property from erosion. In 2012 we started an application process that staff said was supported under the rules and policies.

In 2015 they changed their minds and changed the Shoreline Management policy all after they had made us spend close to $45,000, at that time.

They refuse to cooperate, they play games and are downright unprofessional.

Kettle Creek Staff are now asking me for more reports and $10,000 to do a peer review on my own plan.

We are now over $80,000 in debt and the last letter from staff said this “list is not exhaustive”.

How can this corruption continue?

I see in the proposed amendments that the words are ambiguous as in “other hazards”.

The language needs to be clear, it cannot be left to interpretation or nothing will be accomplished.

“Other Hazards” could mean erosion, it could mean many things.

Conservation Authorities are at best miss managed and will take advantage of poorly worded documents, to the disadvantage of landowners.

Conservation Authorities should not be looking after hazard lands. That should be left to the Province under the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Please, do what is right. Clean up the language and make them accountable.

Hearings should not be held at the Minings Level. Not one appeal has been passed in favour of the Landowner at this level. Lands and Mining Hearings only cost the Landowner money and they then have to appeal to a court. This is wrong.

An independent trustworthy appeal process needs to be put into place.

Conservation Authorities take our hard earned tax dollars and pay Conservation Ontario to advocate on their behalf. (Fight Government) This is usually done to the detriment of the Landowner. I can find no legal authority to where Conservation Authorities can use our money this way and no authority where Conservation Ontario can legitimately exist under the legislation.

In closing it's time that Conservation Authorities were taken back and or eliminated altogether. They have done way more harm to communities than good.