The consolidation of…

The consolidation of Conservation Authorities will be a costly process that will slow down the work of CAs and lead to a lack of representation and oversight from local governments.
The creation of a provincial agency is an unnecessary layer of government that will only result in more municipal tax dollars serving provincial needs.

The goal of having all Conservation Authority permits run through the same platform is a good idea, this can be done without a costly reorganization. If any reorganization is on the table details on what that looks like and how the transition will work without draining municipal tax dollars should be presented to the public. Currently there is no clear pathway to success being presented and what is currently proposed is a very inefficient model. The proposed regions are too large for work that requires visits to local sights and fast response times for flood monitoring. This could only work with all current locations and programs staying in place. If all locations stay the end result of a reorganization will be an expensive transition and rebrand with no improved results. The province should fund the upgrades of technology if there will is for all CAs to use it, and a reorganization is not needed for this.

All local boards should remain intact. If municipalities are the primary funder of CAs they should also be the primary governing body. Local budgets direction and mission has always been the strength of CAs. When municipalities fund CAs it leads to localized programs that fit the unique needs of each region. The current reorganization proposed ignores those regions and combines rural with urban watersheds both having completely different needs and showing now clear route to ensuring local municipal governance stays intact. Local government has a role in our province and is part of our strength giving communities a voice in local management is part of what makes Ontario great.

Local CAs with local boards are essential to ensuring quality work and under the current funding model is the only way to ensure local dollars go towards local priorities. Voluntary consolidation on a much smaller scale than proposed could be an option if there was far more funding from the province to take the burden of such a costly endeavor off of the local tax base.