Hello, I would like to say…

Hello,

I would like to say that I support the position of the Hamilton Conservation Authority with respect to the proposed regional consolidation. It seems to me to be almost self-evident that conservation authorities as an institution benefit from local, decentralized operations insofar as that allows for conservation authorities that are more responsive to local concerns. Consolidation seems antithetical to appropriate environmental stewardship. It is puzzling to me that this proposal ignores that.

The lack of transparency regarding the proposed changes is also disappointing. The province's invocation of permit times, etc., would be more persuasive if they provided supporting statistics regarding the supposed shortcomings. I have not seen anything to that effect, and most of the public comments from conservation authorities suggest that the requisite deadlines for the permits have been met with some consistency. Cynically, this suggests that the stated rationale is pretextual, and that the real goal is to concentrate authority with a specific view to aiding developers in a manner that will almost certainly be to the detriment of the environment.