I am very concerned about…

I am very concerned about the proposed changes to the Conservation Authorities. As an environmental professional and previous employee of a CA, I strongly hold that these changes would have serious impacts on the functioning of CA programming. Conservation authorities provide essential local and visible stewardship support to private landowners. In southern Ontario, the majority of land is privately owned and the available government resources to rural landowners for conservation support almost always falls solely on the CA. When an employee, I was constantly told by these landowners that they highly valued this support especially with the removal of provincial resources in the 2000s. Conservation authorities must maintain their local jurisdictions to provide these services. There would be no way to provide services for well decommissions, livestock fencing, tree break planting, shoreline improvements at a regional scale as proposed by the Ontario Government. Employee must be able to drive to these sites as needed and provide resources that are locally relevant. In addition, this positive relationship building in a local area is important to provide better working relationships when regulatory challenges arise. The Ontario government needs to stop centralizing power and allow local organizations to provide services that met the specific needs of their residents.

The only change I would support is standardizing development fees and regulations across a larger area in some capacity. However, this should also be done with caution because as with municipal official plans, local regulations change across watersheds because the real differences in ecological conditions, economic needs and local values between them.

The Ontario government needs to stop bulldozing local planning organizations and understand it is not one size fits all. Leave our Conservation authorities alone for once or at least work with them directly to develop a solution or let them do their jobs in peace. They are extremely professional and highly qualified for what they do.