I am strongly opposed to the…

I am strongly opposed to the proposed changes to Ontario's Conservation Authorities (CAs). The concept of amalgamation of our existing 36 CAs into 7 regional CAs is fundamentally flawed. One of the current benefits of Conservation Authorities is that their staff provide local expertise on their watersheds, and amalgamation will only expand these boundaries and water down the effectiveness of staff response to important matters like flood risk, erosion hazards, and managing conservation areas.

Secondly, Conservation Ontario is currently the umbrella organization for CAs. I am concerned that the new proposed provincial agency will duplicate the work that Conservation Ontario already does, leading to more red tape, less efficiency, and therefore longer timelines for the types of approvals that this change is supposed to improve.

Thirdly, has the government considered the cost of changing the signage and branding of all 36 CAs into the 7 proposed regional CAs? This is in addition to the cost of disruption of labour and services that will undoubtably occur due to the roll-out of changes in administration as services are amalgamated, and the cost of the new provincial oversight board. To me this is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars in a sector (environmental protection and conservation) that is already sorely underfunded to the detriment of all Ontarians.

Finally the inclusion of Lakehead Region Conservation Authority with the six conservation authorities around eastern Lake Huron and southern Georgian Bay makes no sense - the geography, ecology, and human settlement context of these landscapes are completely different.