I am extremely concerned…

I am extremely concerned about the proposed consolidation of Ontario's conservation authorities and urge the Ontario Government and other officials to NOT move forward with this process. The amalgamation into much larger areas leads to a very high risk of losing local relationships and voices that are so key to protecting our connections with lands. The massive conglomeration of regions will devastate any sort of work that has been done to form relationships with current landowners and stakeholders.

I echo the calls of the Hamilton Conservation Authority, which outlines many key points opposing this. There has been no clear reason put forward as to why this is necessary. There is no funding plan in place to fund a costly merger, with the logistics of this which are going to be huge. The disruption with which this will cause in the organizations is scary and will no doubt cause a loss of jobs to those incredibly hard working members of our current conservation authorities.

As a resident of Hamilton, and citizen passionate about conservation, I am deeply concerned about losing local decision-making. I support keeping conservation decisions rooted in our community, and finding alternate solutions to whatever problems this merger is supposedly trying to fix.