Re: ERO Number 013-4992 …

Re: ERO Number 013-4992 “Focusing conservation authority development permits on the protection of people and property”

These comments are submitted on behalf of the Council of the Town of St. Marys.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on the proposed changes to the Conservation Authorities Act. Council for the Town of St. Marys is in agreement with the current government’s philosophies to make Ontario open for business. We also fully appreciate the importance of the Province’s direction to municipalities to become efficient and reduce long term costs.

It is our view that the Province needs to view the changes to the Conservation Authorities Act as a key step in making Ontario open for business. We strongly encourage the government to ensure that there are changes to the Act that allow small rural towns like St. Marys to grow responsibly.

For context, downtown St. Marys is located at the confluence of the Thames River and Trout Creek. The flood plain in the Town’s downtown is regulated by the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) through a provincially approved Special Policy Area (SPA). Over the last many years, the Town, residents, and prospective developers have been subject to overly conservative decisions and interpretations of the SPA by the UTRCA. This has led to lost opportunity for development and growth, and has led to business growth relocating out of Town. Council for St. Marys finds this to be in direct conflict with the current government’s open for business approach. If a small Town like St. Marys faces restrictions for growth that are imposed by the UTRCA and the Conservation Authorities Act, how can we become financially viable as the current government is pushing us to be? Without growth and new taxation revenue, how will we be able to manage the cuts to provincial transfer payments that are expected in 2020? Will the government continue to allow the Conservation Authorities Act to all but seal the slow death of downtown St. Marys?

We have reviewed ERO number 013-4992 and we fully appreciate the need to ensure that public safety is paramount. We also applaud the government for taking steps to make rules for development in hazardous areas more consistent to support faster, more predictable and less costly approvals. We agree that consistency in requirements across all conservation authorities is needed since working with different rules in each conservation authority creates confusion, additional costs and delays for the development industry. We strongly encourage the government to ensure that the new regulations ensure that there is flexibility for growth in areas like downtown St. Marys.

To the specifically proposed changes we offer the following comments:
• We agree that the government should require conservation authorities to develop, consult on, make publicly available and periodically review internal policies that guide permitting decisions. We would strongly encourage the government, through regulation, to specifically identify how municipalities will be consulted in the process, and specifically require that municipal input be acted upon.

We would encourage the government to go further and require that conservation authorities develop a policy governing how appeals of decisions will be addressed. To that end, we believe that within the legislation the government should establish some basic principles of how appeals of conservation authorities will be heard and dealt with. We also believe the government should legislate the basis upon which appeal decisions should be made. Too often we find that appeals must be heard by an internal committee of the conservation authority, and that this process only results in a decision that favors the conservation authority. Preferably, we would like to see appeals of conservation authority decisions referred to an independent third party who evaluates their decision not strictly based on Provincial Policy Statement guidance, but on a common sense application of the rules within the local context so that we can be open for business.

• We agree that the government should require conservation authorities to notify the public of changes to mapped regulated areas such as floodplains or wetland boundaries. Too often we find that these changes occur and landowners are not notified of the new restrictions on their property.

• We agree that the government should require conservation authorities to establish, monitor and report on service delivery standards including requirements and timelines for determination of complete applications and timelines for permit decisions. We would encourage the government to go further and to include specific deadlines for decisions within the regulations. The province is proposing changes to the Planning Act which would reduce the maximum allowable time for planning decisions, and we believe that this approach should be taken with the Conservation Authorities Act. Too often we find that developments are delayed by the conservation authority approvals process. These delays do not contribute to an Ontario that is open for business.

We wish to once again extend out thanks for the opportunity to provide comment. The Town of St. Marys sincerely appreciates the government’s efforts to provide a clear and consistent regulatory environment in which to operate and to make approval processes faster, more predictable and less costly.