I live in the Upper Thames…

I live in the Upper Thames River Watershed. The proposed amalgamation of conservation authorities should not proceed. Conservation Authorities should continue to be based on watershed boundaries, not on municipal boundaries. The proposed size of the amalgamated CA's makes no sense and takes away local knowledge, local representation, and local input. Rural communities and farmers will lose considerable power and representation under the proposed amalgamation. I value the work CA's do to protect out waterways and lakes through working with farmers to adapt farm practices, working with farmers and landowners to maintain wetlands, working with farmers to adapt to our changing climate, working to preserve biodiversity across the landscape and protecting sensitive land from development. I do not trust the provincial government to protect the interests of farmer, rural communities nor the landscape as it takes more power over CA's through the proposed amalgamation. With much larger Boards governing CA's, the voice of smaller, rural communities will be dwarfed by the voices of large urban representatives. With such large Boards, there will be a lack of knowledge and understanding of local programs and services currently offered by CA's and it is likely as farmers and rural communities we will lose many valuable programs, services and CA staff. The provincial government should maintain more, watershed based CAs, not fewer municipally based CA's structured to decrease transparency, eliminate rural voices, and to act first and only in the interest of developers.