Ontario’s wetlands,…

Ontario’s wetlands, floodplains, and natural heritage systems provide measurable public benefits by reducing flood damage, protecting drinking water sources, buffering climate extremes, and sustaining biodiversity. Once compromised, these systems are costly, or impossible, to restore.

It is appropriate to acknowledge that some conservation authorities operate with fewer resources or have limited access to specialized expertise, particularly in smaller or rural jurisdictions. There is value in strengthening coordination, shared science, data standardization, and access to technical expertise across conservation authorities to address shared challenges such as climate-driven flood risk, cumulative watershed impacts, and the prevention and management of invasive species. A coordinating or advisory oversight body that supports collaboration and consistency could improve effectiveness in these areas.

However, addressing capacity gaps does not require consolidation or the removal of independent, locally grounded decision-making authority. The proposed consolidation would shift decision-making authority away from independent, locally grounded conservation authorities toward centralized structures that are inherently more vulnerable to short-term political and economic pressures. These governance conditions increase the risk of inappropriate influence over land-use decisions, including reduced transparency, diminished local accountability, and increased political control over regulators responsible for safeguarding natural systems.

This measure risks shifting conservation authorities from preventative environmental protectors into administrative service providers primarily tasked with facilitating development approvals. Such a shift would predictably result in increased development in flood-prone and ecologically sensitive areas, loss of natural lands that provide flood attenuation and water filtration, degradation of water quality, fragmentation of habitat, and heightened vulnerability to invasive species establishment and spread.

We are living in a time when the natural systems that support human life are being degraded at an alarming rate. Rather than weakening environmental safeguards, more resources and stronger governance should be directed toward protecting and restoring the limited lands Ontario has committed to conserve.