Comment on ERO 025-1257…

Comment on ERO 025-1257
Proposed boundaries for the regional consolidation of Ontario’s conservation authorities.

I am alarmed to hear that this government is proposing to reorganize the structure of the Conservation Authorities (CAs) and creating a provincial oversight body. I am alarmed because this government does not demonstrate respect for conservation, or land use planning considerations related to protecting our natural heritage. A Heritage that not only enriches our lives, provides habitat for countless creatures, a bounty of biodiversity, but is also the invaluable natural buffer from human induced climate change effects that our society will experience over the next century(s).
I suspect that the main interest not this government in the CAs is not an altruistic concern. The Minister has made clear that its priority is expediting development permits; that essentially, the CAs are there in service of this cause. That the CAs primary purpose is flood control and watershed management a tool to that end.
The CAs are the second largest public landholder in the province, next only to Crown Land. Under Bill 23, the government required the CAs to produce a list/map of their landholdings to identify” excess lands”. Its unclear what that means; however, for example, regulatory changes, such as restricted definitions of wetlands, river channels, and minimum setbacks, have created lands that are now outside of the CAs regulatory power, which then could be defined as “excess lands” and open to development. Is this one of the purposes of the provincial oversight body- to make those determination and alienate those lands from the CAs landholdings. Its unclear.

A second concern is that the stated purpose of this provincial oversight body is to turn all CA staff into “frontline workers”. I gather that means the pen pushers and those with specialized skills will be corralled into centralized offices some distance from the frontline: control and political priorities will emanate from Queen’s Park rather than thru municipal councils. Conservation is most successfully practiced when it is based on a model of local stewardship with the support of higher levels of government. An example of this are the many nature steward programs. The organizational model put forward appears to upend this practice, distancing technical expertise and decision making from its roots.