The CAs have lost their way…

The CAs have lost their way. Recently, when funding cuts were threatened for Quinte Conservation, their press release said, "If you cut our funds, we won't be able to process building permits as quickly and it could delay building projects." How wrong is that? Rather than say "you risk increased flooding" or "we may have to curtail hours in the Conservation Areas" or "we may have to end educational outreach," their manager and communications person felt that threatening building permits was their most important function That is wrong.
I operate a business on a lake that is controlled by a dam. The CVCA abdicated their responsibility for that dam some years back. The lake level is now regulated by "who screams the loudest" to the local MNR office. The CVCA says they don't have the man power to send to operate the dam. What could be more important to their original core responsibility of floor control?

The CA has also put itself into the building permit process for almost every piece of land in this municipality, even though the work being done often is such that their own permit application has no fields that fit the description. In many cases the individuals reviewing the permit applications have never seen the building site and really have no knowledge of it other than looking at maps created by more people who have never been on site.

Conservation Areas should be moved to be in the management of Ontario Parks, and the CAs should be totally removed from the building permit process. CA expertise should be applied at the County or Municipal planning level, not on the individual land owner level.

Source Water has been a wonderful exercise. The mapping of WHPAs and surface water intakes has been completed. The science to create source protection areas and policies has been done. That work should be turned over to the planning departments of the affected municipalities. It is at that level, where building officials and by-law enforcement officers exist, that enforcement of the Source Protection policies should occur. Duplication of that by CA staff is a waste of tax payers money. The entire source protection effort could be reduced to a small provincial staff that monitors municipal compliance.