Reducing the number of…

Reducing the number of authorities based on the concept of "The current system of 36 separate conservation authorities is fragmented, with each conservation authority following different policies, standards, fees and levels of staffing and technical capabilities," means that you remove the right to make policies based on actual happenings. A local Conservation authority works only in the immediate region and address issues they are facing immediately and develops policies approprate the the actual issue not a similar issue. This is important to meet the REAL need, not SOMETHING CLOSE TO the real need.

Feel free to make fees homogenous, but you do not need to dissmantle and then reconfigure the whole system to do that. Just send out a letter telling everyone to change the fees, so that they are the same across Ontario.

By level of staffing, if you mean their are too many, then stop hiring and the staffing numbers will decrease naturally. You do not need to reconfigure and affect all employees because you want less staff. They will leave over time. If you mean staffing, by level of competance, that is normal given the rural area where a lot of the consrvation authaurities locations. Instead of dismantling and reconfiguring, encourge the connection between Conservation Authorites and encourge sharing knowldge and technical resources on certain projects or as needed.

Seriously, reconfugring them all is just a perceived cost cutting measure by down sizing. The truth is you can make it better using the model we have and slowly re-molding it; be smart.