I appreciate the government…

I appreciate the government’s ambition to streamline and standardize processes across conservation authorities. However, I have concerns about the solution being proposed, particularly regarding the scale of consolidation being proposed. Moving from 36 conservation authorities to 7 is a drastic shift, and risks creating extremely geographically large entities that are removed from local community needs. The proposed consolidated regions include a hodgepodge of different areas with different needs that have little in common with one another. Expecting a single entity to service the very different needs of the many municipalities they encompass is unreasonable and likely to create worse outcomes. Furthermore, the cost of transitioning to the new model is likely to be quite high – could this money not be better spent provide additional funding to underfunded conservation authorities to ensure high standards of service delivery? Finally, I am concerned that governance of such large entities is likely to be challenging. Since the majority of funding for conservation authorities comes from municipalities, I believe it is only right that all municipalities should have a say in their governance. However, amalgamated conservation authorities would encompass so many municipalities that ensuring representation from all municipalities would lead to the watering down of local needs and create large and unwieldy governance bodies. It seems undemocratic for municipal funding to be spent on agencies under provincial oversight. I urge the government to reconsider the proposed amalgamation. Standardization of permitting procedures and improved funding to underfunded conservation authorities can occur without the proposed amalgamation. I fear that the true intent of this proposal is merely to create more chaos, strip power from local communities, and make it harder for conservation authorities to do their job to promote safe, sensible development where it is feasible and keep communities safe. I do not support this proposal.