Conservation Authorities…

Conservation Authorities should remain individualized and not grouped together. Conservation authorities prioritize conservation. We have seen time and time again that the provincial government does not care about conservation. Grouping conservation authorities together for provincial control will ultimately harm Ontarios ecotourism, ecological services (flood prevention, erosion control, the mental and physical health of people who rely on natural spaces, water pollution mitigation, food web stability which ties into agricultural success, and air quality control). By handing over our conservation authorities to provincial control we will ultimately be chipping away at Ontario. Pushing it further from a prosperous future and closer to a future that has chipped away our life support systems.
I do not see the merging of conservation authorities as a beneficial move for Ontario. Community action is often a lot more progressive and action driven than anything the provincial government has done for the environment.
If our provincial government is being honest about wanting to improve conservation, they need to prove it first. There are ecological design principles, restoration projects and simple actions that they could take. Instead we repetitively see condos going up and land being bulldozed for cheaply made homes far away from places that restore human health.
The provincial government must first make policies to improve the way our communities are being built. Bring back the offsetting of ponds. Make it mandatory for some amount of green space (nature) to remain for peoples mental and physical health. These are very reasonable and necessary actions for the future of Ontario.
Once the government proves that it cares about our physical and mental wellbeing, that it sees the value in having green spaces, that it wants to improve Ontario for Ontarios future, then we can revisit its ideas for conservation authorities.
For now, I say hands off conservation authorities.