I urge the current…

I urge the current provincial government to reconsider the changes it is proposing to the existing conservation authority boundaries, knowing full well it will not. Therefore, I urge the current provincial government to:

- Review, understand, and listen to the comments, concerns, and suggestions being raised directly by our conservation authorities regarding the consolidation process and transition to the new regional conservation authorities
- Consult openly and transparently with the conservation authorities during every step of the transition process in the year to come
- Provide funding to conservation authorities for expenses related to restructuring and rebranding of resources
- Maintain, if not increase, the current level of provincial funding to conservation authorities going forward

Ontario is incredibly lucky in being the only jurisdiction in the world to have had single-watershed-level management of its natural spaces. I don't need to list all of the important monitoring, restoration, and education activities they carry out daily, a simple search will reveal that. Rather than being inefficient, this highly localized framework has allowed conservation authorities to target the unique natural and community issues within their jurisdictions with specialized precision. Furthermore, the current turnaround time of conservation authorities on activity permit applications is actually extremely short, at 12.5 days on average, far below the 30 day deadline set out by the province itself. The amalgamation of our conservation authorities into massive, multi-watershed jurisdictions will only make it more difficult for them to address the ranges of concerns within their regions, and will only increase permit wait times.

Perhaps the only outcome of the proposed consolidation I can immediately support is the standardization of methodologies and software used between conservation authorities. However, any gains in efficiency from this will be more than outweighed by losses to the administrative resources that will be needed to organize activity over much larger jurisdictions.

However, having said all of this, I do not believe that these proposed changes are actually about improving efficiency or process. If efficiency really were a concern, it would not be improved via the use of such a drastic, sweeping change. Given this government's history of diluting its environmental regulatory bodies and legislation, I can only believe that this is simply the next move in the weakening of protections on our green spaces in order to make it easier for irresponsible developers to carry out reckless, short-term-profit-driven activity which benefits wealthy and already-well-off Ontarians more than those who actually need housing the most. This is part of a broader effort by this government to dilute the societal infrastructure of this province which safeguards our natural heritage and our marginalized and vulnerable communities, because these are among the obstacles standing in the way of the short-term, profit-driven goals of its closest beneficiaries.

Nearly every Ontarian I've met cherishes our green spaces and the time they spend in them, yet most are not even aware of our conservation authorities' existence, let alone the vital work they do. Perhaps this is a sign of their effectiveness: for decades our conservation authorities have worked quietly but tirelessly in the background of our province to maintain and improve the health of our watersheds. All of their work over the last 70 years has ultimately helped prevent another Hurricane Hazel-level catastrophe. People rarely think about what never happened to them. I can only hope we will begin thinking if we start facing repeated Hazels or Walkertons, and I hope we will not be able to look back at this as one of the steps this government took that helped the province get to those points.