Conservation of watersheds…

Conservation of watersheds is best managed by people who live in that watershed. This is definitely the case for the Lake Simcoe area. Merging Lake Simcoe Conservation into a much larger entity will undoubtedly weaken and impair local governance and accountability and eliminate local expertise. The progress obtained over the past few years will be overturned. Specific concerns are as follows.

1 A mega-regional authority responsible for multiple Great Lakes watersheds is far less able to maintain the place-based focus the LSPP requires.
2. Lake Simcoe’s unique and worsening pressures—phosphorus pollution, rising chloride from road salt, climate-driven flooding risks and natural-heritage cover—require scientists who know this watershed intimately.
3. Weaker local governance and accountability: LSRCA’s municipal representation keeps decisions tied to local needs. Under consolidation, local voices would be reduced, and accountability diminished.
4. Large-scale amalgamations often increase costs due to the integration of systems, staff teams and geographically dispersed operations—despite claims of “efficiency.

Please do not proceed with consolidating the regional conservation areas, and especially do not include LSRCA in the consolidation framework. Instead, protect and expand local scientific capacity, and publicly commit that the LSPP’s monitoring, reporting and adaptive management will not be weakened.