I do not believe this is in…

I do not believe this is in the best interest of conservation, which is the primary function of these associations.

There are issues with the system, I admit, but consolidation is not the solution. Consolidation into large areas removes the immediacy and tangibility of the effects of policy changes from those people making the decisions. It's easier to defund a conservation area that is not in your backyard. This removes local accountability and takes power from the voices of those who are locally active and have the best working knowledge of the area and it's unique needs. It reduces ability to provide input from citizens, by petitions and other forms of disagreement. A petition that needs to cover 81 areas instead of within a municipality is going to be enormously harder to achieve. I also suspect this would lead to job loss at a time people are suffering.

The reasoning that this is being done to align with provincial interests is alarming. It's blatantly admitting that this is going to take away power from municipalities to act in their own best interest.

Consolidation of power leads to less involvement in each area, easier corruption with less safeguards, and a lower diversity of ideas and efforts that improve conservation as there will be many less groups working on the issues at hand. Any bad policy will have large, sweeping consequences and fewer peers to see or help correct it. It leads to cost cutting measures that can severely impact the quality of our conservation areas because of the disconnect between these larger authorities and the many small areas they will manage. They will not be as in tune with each area and it's needs like a local authority is.

This policy is acknowledging a problem and putting the worst solution forward.