These proposed mergers and…

These proposed mergers and changes to the conservation authorities ought to be scrapped, immediately. The author of the proposal should be fired, as it is completely divorced from all reality and common sense.

As it stands, this proposal would create enormous and unwieldy blocks of territory wherein each amalgamated agency cannot accomplish its primary goals, let alone basic operations. The most egregious example is the proposal to lump Thunder Bay into the same body that would oversee the regions bordering Lake Huron--hundreds of kilometres away. Leaving aside that the environmental issues and municipalities' goals wouldn't be remotely similar, the size of the area would be impossibly large to administer.

At a minimum, the process of approving permits and reviewing zoning would become bogged down and grind to a halt. In all likelihood, these new agencies would become mere shells of their former selves, and completely fail to do their jobs. Unless the province is secretly planning to abolish the conservation authorities entirely, there is no logical reason to continue with the proposal as it exists.