Ontario's watershed approach…

Ontario's watershed approach to protecting residents from the water and the water from the residents through the Conservation Authorities has been the envy of private and public agencies in many areas of the world.
The strength of the Conservation Authorities is in the watershed approach and making this awareness and action local. Larger agencies could easily lose these foci in their bureaucracy.
If the larger 8 agencies continue the watershed boundaries, they will cut across municipal boundaries, as they do now. If the watershed approach is not maintained, then we have lost a vital piece of conservation strategy.
Every spring, I look at the number of flood-related deaths in Quebec and look for comparative numbers in Ontario. What Ontario is doing saves lives every year.
Protecting the water from human activity is only becoming more important as our population increases -- we need safe drinking water.
Yes, there are ways to improve and standardize the regulations and the service delivery. I'm not sure amalgamation is the answer.
And amalgamation doesn't necessarily save money. It probably means more travel for people dealing with the bureaucracy, longer waits for service and, for sure, it means higher-paid bureaucrats because they have more reports -- more fodder for the sunshine list.