As a resident, Mayor of…

As a resident, Mayor of North Frontenac and Warden for Frontenac County, I need to comment under this proposed topic "We are also proposing to proclaim un-proclaimed provisions of the Conservation Authorities Act related to: fees for programs and services transparency and accountability approval of projects with provincial grants recovery of capital costs and operating expenses from municipalities (municipal levies) regulation of areas over which conservation authorities have jurisdiction (e.g., development permitting) enforcement and offences additional regulations." and this comment "recovery of capital costs and operating expenses from municipalities (municipal levies)"

I am totally against this for the following reason. the MVCA has dams as an asset on the Mississippi River and have never had an asset management plan in place to maintain or replace the dams. The dams are now in disrepair with no money to repair them. MVCA threatened to levy our residents on the lakes and river that were affected by the repaired dam to which I strongly objected to and it was never done. This proposed change leaves the door wide open to do the same thing and I will fight this with all the resources at my disposal. The water in North Frontenac is source water for everyone down stream and should not affect a select few for levies as one point and municipalities should not be levied for assets they do not own. I understand the money needs to come from somewhere and suggest this is a Provincially funded item as I am sure other CA's across the Province are in a similar predicament.

I also want to comment in relation to CA Board members as spurned by this proposed change item "clarify that the duty of conservation authority board members is to act in the best interest of the conservation authority, similar to not-for profit organizations."
The MVCA Board makeup includes 5 members from Ottawa when only a very small portion of the MVCA watershed is included in Ottawa and is in the rural region of the City. Addington Highlands is primarily the Quinte watershed not the Mississippi, Greater Madawaska is very small and the Board member rarely attends

There are eleven municipalities in the watershed represented on a 17 member Board of Directors. Central Frontenac, Addington Highlands, Greater Madawaska, Tay Valley, Beckwith, Carleton Place (2 members), Drummond/North Elmsley, Lanark Highlands, Mississippi Mills (2 members) , North Frontenac, City of Ottawa (5 members).

The Board should be heavily made up of rural board members and suggest the following be the Board with one rep (9 board members total) for each to allow for fairness and equality of each municipality.
Ottawa
Central Frontenac
North Frontenac
Tay Valley
Beckwith
Carleton Place
Drummond/North Elmsley
Lanark Highlands
Mississippi Mills

There should also be a maximum term for Board Members to allow for fresh input at the Board level and could be done to allow 1/2 the board one time and the other 1/2 later to avoid a full board turnaround.