We are quite concerned about…

We are quite concerned about the move to amalgamate the conservation areas into larger groups. Each conservation area has its own unique issues and knowledge of the waterways they monitor.

We have a seasonal property on Buckshot Lake which is in the Mississippi Valley Conservation Area (MVCA) and have been involved with our lake association for many years. During that time we’ve found the MVCA to be very responsive to questions and concerns from residents and are engaged to provide updates and knowledge about the lake. They also do an excellent job of monitoring water quality, presence of invasive species into the lake, water levels, ice conditions, etc, and keeping residents informed about how to protect our most critical resource.

Standardizing rules and regulations across the many conservation areas in the province and consolidating some management functions might look appealing from an “efficiency” point of view, but attention to the unique characteristics of individual conservation areas will suffer. And let’s not lose the excellent performance of organizations like MVCA by moving everyone to a “lowest common denominator” level of standardization.

As a residents of the former Nepean, we’ve seen the amazing results of amalgamations before. We went from being a responsibly run city with very good services and facilities, sensible taxes, and a cash surplus rather than debt, and now as part of Ottawa, our cash surplus has disappeared, we get to share the very significant Ottawa debt, have degraded services, none of the promised tax savings, and a local government not in tune with the mixed urban/semi-urban/rural reality of our area. Thank you Mike Harris. (sarcasm!)

The MVCA is not broken now, so don’t break it!