No one else in Ontario does…

No one else in Ontario does the work of conservation authorities. CAs are a cost effective and vital link in managing environmental resources, and coordinating flood protection, in Ontario. Flood management has to be coordinated on a watershed scale to maintain protection of life and reduce damages to property in our communities.

Environmental monitoring CAs do, including water quality monitoring and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem monitoring provide vital data for all the communities in a watershed more efficiently than municipalities, regions, or the provincial agencies could manage, due to the scale of CA watershed authority that provides local coordination and local flexibility.

The environmental restoration work CAs do improve our water quality, secure our drinking water, strengthen our environment and economy at a unique and vital scale. Diverting provincial support form these CAs programs downloads additional costs to local taxpayers to support programs that benefit the entire province. In addition, CAs need additional support for managing and restoring lands, which benefits the entire province.

I think the province should include an additional mandatory program area of “conservation of natural resources” to capture some of the core programs and services that have long been part of Conservation Authority work, and provide additional funding to support monitoring, restoration, and flood protection work that CAs do that benefit all the taxpayers in Ontario.

Bill 108 amendments define the role of conservation authorities too narrowly and does not maintain the cruicual watershed focus that conservation authorities provide. These amendments should be reconsidered to protect the crucial work that CAs do for the people of Ontario, and to fund it properly.