Regarding the proposal to…

Regarding the proposal to create Regional Conservation Authorities and an oversight body administered by the province.

Although the proposal presents an interesting approach to service delivery provided by Conservation Authorities, it also appears to be at odds with the original intent of the program. The approach taken to administer provincial legislation with input and co-management with local municipalities has been a success story largely because of local policy control within the legislative framework.

My concern with the proposed approach is that role of the provincial oversight body will have a negative effect on the local autonomy which has been a key factor in the program's success to date. It has been my experience that additional bureaucracy tends to slow and reduce service and accountability. In addition, The Ministry of the Environment, Climate Change and Parks already performs this role to a large extent.

I agree that some consolidation of Conservation Authorities that share watershed boundaries in similar geographic regions is desirable and may result in improved resource utilization however, I see no up side in combining geographically disparate Conservation Authorities. I can see no benefit to combining The lakehead Region with The Lake Huron Region authorities. They are separated by an excess of 1000 Km, They are in completely different eco regions, population densities, commercial activities and development pressures are very different. In addition, they do not share any watershed boundaries. There is no possibility of leveraging shared field delivery.

My concern is that the outcome of combining the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority with those in Southern Ontario will result in an overall loss of service delivery for the Thunder Bay area. As a minority player in a large group, it will not have its' current autonomy and resources will likely flow to the largest voice. The proposal will add two decision makers not currently experienced by the Lakehead Region. I fail to see an up side in this proposal. The LRCA already has reasonable turn around times on permitting and flood forecasting and it provides other programs and resources to the local community that are valuable and delivered efficiently.

In summary, the proposal to amalgamate some CAs within a geographic region has some merit and potential benefits. The benefits of adding an additional provincial oversight body are less clear and an alternate approach using the existing structures provided by the MOECCAP should be explored. Finally, the amalgamation of the LRCA into the southern Ontario Authorities should be abandoned and it should be a stand alone Authority.