I am submitting this comment…

I am submitting this comment as I am strongly against the proposed changes to amalgamate Ontario’s conservation Authorities. Ontario’s Conservation Authorities are critical entities conserving, protecting, managing, and restoring our ecosystems and the functions and services they provide. Put simply, conservation authorities work collaboratively to manage local land, water, and the resources they provide; to solve problems with local people living within their watershed boundaries; and, to share the cost of these monitoring and management activities. They are essential to ensure the health of humans, ecosystems, and the economy. The proposed changes to the Conservation Authority structure would limit the involvement of local individuals in important decision-making processes and in the conservation of their watersheds. Each Conservation Authority manages unique areas with unique problems often requiring locally-based unique solutions. Amalgamating the Conservation Authorities would be disastrous from a management perspective, where economic goals are widely variable and priorities are set based on local social-ecological landscapes. Additionally, Conservation Authorities are essential in the fight to recover our Species at Risk. These actions often require local monitoring and action. Lastly, the cost of this transition is substantial and the timeline of the proposed changes is too fast (January 2027). These changes would require governance restructuring, human-resource integration, and policy harmonization, which would take limited resources away from critical services Conservation Authorities provide.
Thanking you in advance for taking the time to consider these comments.