June 25, 2021 Honourable…

June 25, 2021
Honourable
David Piccini
Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks
777 Bay Street,
5th Floor Toronto,
Ontario, M7A 2J3

Dear Minister Piccini congratulations on your new appointment as Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks.

I am writing as CAO of the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority regarding the review of the regulatory proposals for the Conservation Authorities Act. On June 22nd Conservation Ontario submitted a detailed response to the EBO posting which the NVCA Board of Directors fully endorsed at our Friday June 25th meeting earlier today.

I was tremendously encouraged to see a core watershed-based resource management strategy being recommended by the Province. We recently completed our Integrated Watershed Management Plan looking out over a 20-year horizon for our watershed. When developing the plan, the NVCA consulted with its eighteen watershed municipalities, three county partners, the agricultural and development communities and non-governmental organizations. First Nations groups were also contacted as part of the consultation process.

Many Municipal and Provincial elected officials do not fully grasp the importance of integrated watershed management and how vital it is to building healthy eco-systems capable of aiding in flood management. A healthy watershed conserves water, promotes streamflow, supports sustainable streams, rivers, lakes, and groundwater sources, enables healthy soil for crops and livestock, and provides habitat for wildlife and plants as well s great places for people to visit.

Often no single objective, by itself can justify the effort and expenditure required for effective watershed management. But watershed management is efficient and cost-effective precisely because it can be used to pursue multiple objectives in an optimal manner. The benefits associated with the full range of objectives typically considered in watershed management readily justify the cost of a watershed management approach. For this reason, watershed management objectives are never taken in isolation in developing watershed management plans.

Integrated watershed management provides a forum for stakeholders with, at times, competing interests to co-operate and search for consensus in the planning process. Multiple objectives are explicitly acknowledged and evaluated in the watershed management planning process, while the implementation of watershed management activities often involves the co- ordinated participation of multiple agencies having overlapping resource management interests.

I believe the NVCA continues to support the provincial requirement for three types of programs and services that conservation authorities provide: (1) legislated as mandatory by the Province, (2) requested by our partner municipalities, and (3) those that NVCA undertakes to further our own objectives. NVCA views these in the context of the Act’s purpose of, “providing for the organization and delivery of programs and services that further the conservation, restoration, development and management of natural resources in watersheds in Ontario.”

NVCA staff are very appreciative of former Minister Yurek’s initiative in developing a Minister’s Conservation Authorities’ Working Group to review and discuss the regulatory changes and we encourage you to keep it in place moving forward.

The NVCA staff looks forward to working with you and your Ministry staff to create partnerships that allow us to achieve our mutual objectives of protecting people, property and the environment.

Thank you for your consideration.

Regards

Douglas Hevenor
Chief Administrative Office/Secretary Treasurer
Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority