Reducing the Conservation…

Reducing the Conservation Authorities from 36 to 7 is ridiculous. It will create many areas that will not receive the necessary attention that local authorities can give - the required intimate knowledge that can meet the needs of municipalities to control the building and development around their area.

Yes, the authorities need to be streamlined with consistent policies, staffing and regulations, but amalgamation is not the answer. Take the best managed authorities and implement their practices across the system. Keep it all local so that watershed planning and land use can be managed at the municipal level, where the knowledge is in depth, not a cursory glance at a map of somewhere far from the authority's office.

Some of the newly created authorities are huge. There is no way that they can be managed with the depth of knowledge required to manage the areas effectively. Some of these areas have nothing in common with little shared hydrology or infrastructure.

As a final note, all this was done behind closed doors without any public discussion - no standing committee nor public hearings. A great deal can be learned from such discussions.

Where is our democracy???