As a resident of Thunder Bay…

As a resident of Thunder Bay, I am OPPOSED to the Province’s proposed amalgamation of the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority (LRCA) with six other Southern Ontario Conservation Authorities to form the “Huron-Superior Regional Conservation Authority”. I support LRCA’s recommendation that the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority form a stand-alone regional conservation authority as the “Northwestern Ontario Regional Conservation Authority”, or simply remain the "Lakehead region Conservation Authority" to avoid allocating time and resources towards a rebrand when one isn't entirely necessary.

Having locally informed and regionally nuanced expertise on the watershed that surrounds and includes Thunder Bay, the largest watershed in Ontario, is a critical pillar of why this conservation authority has been and will continue to be so successful. Under the proposed Huron-Superior Conservation Authority, the next closest area of jurisdiction to the Thunder Bay area would be ~1600km away by road, and ~720km away as the crow flies (over the water). If the scale of distance isn’t compelling enough to alert the reader to how absurd it is to amalgamate the LRCA with it’s proposed counterparts in Southern Ontario, perhaps a scale of time will be. It takes over 200 years for a drop of water from Lake Superior to enter Lake Huron. How then is a conservation authority expected to effectively or efficiently manage watersheds that don’t interact for ~6-8 generations?

Although amalgamation of conservation authorities in Southern Ontario could certainly make operations more efficient in some instances, it would only serve to be a new barrier for the LRCA. I would strongly urge those involved in making decisions surrounding which CAs are combined to reconsider amalgamating the LRCA with any other CA.