The creation of the Ontario…

The creation of the Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency, and otherwise providing centralized leadership, efficient governance, strategic direction, and oversight is an idea I could support, and is one that will provide consistency across the various RCAs. However, the consolidation of the province's 36 RCAs into 7 will allow for greater mismanagement of watersheds and will prioritize speedy development with less stringent regard for environmental conservation and protection processes. While there might be greater efficiencies in municipal consultation processes (e.g. being governed by one rather than two RCAs), each of the new 7 RCAs will have many more municipalities residing in their enhanced geographic jurisdictional range likely leading to greater environmental mismanagement long-term. Additionally, the large geographic scope of each new RCA will dilute localized knowledge and disregards local specificities. The vast geographic range of the proposed Huron-Superior RCA in particular is vague and undermined local conditions within the two vastly distinct regions (being in Thunder Bay; the second in Southern Ontario - located 750 km apart) will lead to a lack of oversight in municipal decisions and bureaucratic inefficiencies. Not the say that the same does not apply for the other new proposed RCAs. Due to the aforementioned reasons, the reduction in number of RCAs from 36 to 7, a roughly 80% reduction in the number of jurisdictive bodies will ultimately result in poorer management of the watersheds and the environment in any given locality. Given that the actions of RCAs can have a direct impact on the short- and long- term quality of life of people living near or away from watershed alike (e.g. flooding, drinking water, etc), the concerns of and the opposition to the proposed changes from existing RCAs and residents should be recognized and seriously considered. The RCAs decisions keep people safe and healthy, and maintaining the level of control and oversight they have is important. The proposed RCA consolidations will diminish this.