Flooding and natural hazards…

Flooding and natural hazards are a very important issue and it is critical to our future that people be kept out these areas. Many people who buy a home in the floodplain are shocked to find this is the case when a flood happens. Regulations around flooding should continue to be supported by the province to prevent future disasters such as Bracebridge although there may be certain types of low risk applications that could be exempt from the process.

Bracebridge does not have a conservation authority and I wonder how much this increased the cost of this flood to society. It's easy to say that development regulations are a burden to people wanting to build a home but when a flood happens those people will blame the governments who let them build in the floodplain in the first place.

It is similarly important that wetlands and important natural habitat areas be protected from significant development, as these areas provide flooding, water quality and erosion prevention benefits that reduce costs to society down the road and support recreation, tourism and support a productive economy, which benefits everyone.

Much of conservation authorities' funding comes from municipalities and many small municipalities struggle to bear this cost. Recent cuts by the province to flood programs further exacerbate this problem. The province should consider cost-efficient ways of increasing funding to conservation authorities to improve the implementation of natural hazard management as part of the reason for delays in approvals seems to be understaffing and underfunding (along with incomplete or poor quality applications). Clearly defined expectations for new development applications could help to alleviate this issue.

I think there is an opportunity for everyone to benefit from the the proposed changes. There is much to be gained from consistency, clarity and transparency between conservation authorities. These changes should not result in more people being allowed to build in the floodplain. Conservation authorities could also use a better mechanism of generating funds to support growing numbers of development applications as the province grows.