I am a resident of Toronto…

I am a resident of Toronto and vehemently oppose this change. In my job I am a management consultant, improving the efficiency and processes of businesses across our country and enabling existing workforces to do more with what they have without the need for slashing jobs or spending thousands on reorgs and shiny new equipment. I know that this change is being branded as consolidation for the benefit of time and resources, but it is a shameful and misleading facade for this government's continued efforts to cloak the degradation of our systems and institutions in the name of "building more housing". I know that centralizing these systems will remove the local resources required to be responding to things like permitting in a timely manner, I know that decades of institutional knowledge will be lost, and I know we will all suffer for it -- all at the speed at the stroke of a pen from a government who refuses to listen to its constituents (see Doug Ford telling members in the public gallery on November 24th to 'go find a job' while pushing through Bill 60) . These local authorities have been and remain vital to ensuring that we can live in harmony with our environment and build responsibly. This same government released the Ontario Provincial Climate Change Impact Assessment (August 2023) that acknowledges that we the people of Ontario will be paying dearly very soon if we don't take meaningful, substantial, and considerate action in mitigating the impacts of climate change across this province. These authorities not only support these efforts, but are a critical piece in keeping us safe and saving lives of all flora and fauna -- humans included. This will be an expensive waste of time when these funds could be used to actually making a meaningful difference to building housing in the province. Don't use the conservation authorities as your scapegoat for incompetence and future generations as your sacrifice for short-term political gain.