The Lake Erie North Shore…

The Lake Erie North Shore Landowners Association thanks you for the opportunity to comment on this very important process.

With 60 Landowner members, we are concerned that Conservation Authorities have way too much power and have taken advantage of being poorly monitored and supervised for years.

The horror stories from across Elgin County speak for themselves.

The lack of cooperation, the lack of empathy, the lack of support for landowners is clearly shown in all examples.

If the Provincial Government is going to make changes, make sure they are clear cut lines.

Conservation Authorities make extremely vast claims of power they do not have. In order to challenge a Conservation Authorities' power, you have to spend large amounts of money in court.

This is unfair to landowners.

Ambiguous language is taken advantage of at all Conservation Authorities. They use the Provincial Policy Statement as law and rules. They refer to technical guides and interpret them against the landowner. We have examples of where they basically make stuff up as they go.

They claim wetlands by looking at aerial photos.

It is time for positive change. Landowners have rights to protect their property.

It would be our recommendation to make sure Conservation Authorities are supervised. They fail to have educated staff. They rely on a process of “ Peer Review” They pin one Engineer against another. All this is done at the expense of the Landowner.

If they are not staffed to a consistent qualified level, then they should not be engaged in these roles.

How and why should a landowner pay for two engineers reports as a peer review, of their own plan?

The proposed language in the mandate needs clarity.

ie: “other Hazards” if this type of language is left to be interpreted by Conservation Authority staff, nothing will be gained. The language needs to be clear.

We look forward to a comprehensive and clearly detailed revision of the Conservation Authorities Act. There needs to be clear language and clear rules that Conservation Authorities must follow.