There are several questions…

There are several questions that have been posed that, as far as I know, have not been adequately answered, such as: how will local representatives be preserved on regional boards? Will all local lands and agreements remain protected and respected? How will funding change, and why? In my opinion the best steps to take to eradicate any redundancies and increase efficiency, as per the stated concern, is to work with and allow local representatives from the 36 regional conservation authorities to develop standardized policies, protocols, standards, etc, where applicable, to decrease the discrepancies where possible, and to supplement with training, funding, etc where needed, to bring all 36 unique, important and discrete authorities to a more standardized provincial level. The answer, in my opinion, is Not to move to erase all ability to use and apply specialized and local knowledge, nor is it to remove the ability to make executive decisions on a local level from a place of deep understanding and nuance. There are many things that have not been made clear to the public as to how this proposed consolidating will affect local communities and current conservation authorities, their funding, and their ability to do their jobs effectively and with greatest positive impact to the environment they are protecting. Please reconsider this proposal, and listen to and work with local conservation authorities across the province to make a clearer, more effective, and less disruptive plan to achieve the goals of reducing redundancies and increasing efficiency.