This plan of Doug Ford's…

This plan of Doug Ford's conservative government is fraught with potential catastrophic implementations.

Conservation authorities across the province are tasked with safeguarding our local drinking water sources and working to reduce the risks from natural hazards like flooding, erosion and drought. As Ontario’s population has grown, they have also been responsible for regulating development to minimize those risks, issuing permits only to those who pay attention to sustainable construction and growth.

Over the last six years, the Doug Ford government has passed four bills that have drastically changed the rules governing the 36 conservation authorities’ ability to do this job — all to speed up development. Those changes have included reducing conservation authorities’ influence over development, weakening their ability to protect water quality and wetlands and having their decisions be overruled by the overseeing minister.

Currently, 26 out of 36 conservation authorities have staff closely monitoring worryingly low water levels in rivers and lakes across the province, with some declaring near-drought conditions brought on by a lack of rain. They’re doing this while they also grapple with the impacts of consolidation.

The consolidation looks like it’s not about efficiency but that it’s about removing power from the communities and imposing control from above. The government’s amalgamation plan could risk creating a larger, more distant bureaucracy that’s less accountable and less responsive to local needs.

If the province centralizes how the Conservation authorities are all run, we will lose the local knowledge, the on-the-ground flooding and drinking water protection, and the local programming.

I oppose the amalgamation of the conservation authorities and urge the government to look to regionals directors for more details and concrete information to move forward to improve their delivery of service. Nobody wants another Walkerton water crisis.