As a resident of Hamilton, I…

As a resident of Hamilton, I wish to register my concern at the proposal to merge the existing thirty-six conversation areas (a structure that has served us well for decades) into seven:

1. Please explain how the existing CAs are falling short. Where is the evidence to support this proposal? Before embarking on an expensive merger, I believe we should first establish what (if any) are the current issues and try to correct them within the existing organizational structure (if any correction is required). Change on this scale is rarely simple and never easy, and to be successful it requires a level of thought and planning not currently evident in this proposal.

2. Hamilton and Puslinch currently fund approximately 35% of HCA’s work and have a direct say in watershed decisions. The Province contributes less than 1%. In a 28-municipality organization, our local voice will carry less weight, but we, the local taxpayers, will still be funding the work with little to no representation in the decision-making process.

3. Where is the money coming from to fund this proposed merger? Who will be paying for the inevitable consultants, and the merging of systems (visitor services, memberships, staff structures, IT systems etc). Where is the funding plan and what is the anticipated return-on-investment? A government proposal without a business plan or a funding model is not democracy at work, it is pollical dogma.

4. A larger, more removed agency has the potential to erode the local collaboration that makes conservation effective and undermine the very principles on which the existing management structure was built. Local knowledge will be lost and decisions will be taken by people who do not have to live with the consequence. Where is the risk assessment? Where is the impact assessment?