Questions and responses:…

Questions and responses:

What do you see as key factors to support a successful transition and outcome of regional conservation authority consolidation?
- A successful transition would be a slow (at least not rushed) process that considers the existing local knowledge to be successfully transferred as needed to levels within their new defined regions.
- There is value in the pre-existing knowledge and do consider the possibility of resistance to share knowledge from an individual who feels negative emotions towards the new decisions out of their control.
- Be patient and take time transitioning
- Ensure the continuation of community involvement in small local pockets. A strong volunteer and community knowledge and involvement will help in managing on a larger scale, alleviating strain on any one higher up position.

What opportunities or benefits may come from a regional conservation authority framework?
- Sharing of resources to areas that didn't have enough before the change
- focus more on the resource sharing rather than the perceived efficiency that can be obtained through reducing redundancy as this will ensure unseen processes are maintained rather than lost upon transitioning.

Do you have suggestions for how governance could be structured at the regional conservation authority level, including suggestions around board size, make-up and the municipal representative appointment process?
- I can't give numbers as I think a successful choice would require more knowledge on the current setup and how it is functioning than I know.
- I do know that a successful board should probably have recent knowledge and personal experience and/or contact with the local area to be able to make a decision for the affected environmental areas that would be involved in any decision making. No one person can see everything so this personal knowledge can help counteract dismissal of unknown but important variables.

Do you have suggestions on how to maintain a transparent and consultative budgeting process across member municipalities within a regional conservation authority?
- Provided the budget publicity in a way that is easy for people to find if they wanted to know (examples: online searchable and available through local locations for those who don't use online resources)
- provided all inflowing and outflowing income and expenses (raw expense data) in an addition to an organized format. The organized format helps with understanding the budget and the raw data provides absolute transparency and the ability for others to take part in suggestions/consultation.

How can regional conservation authorities maintain and strengthen relationships with local communities and stakeholders?
- Consider people's main reasons to resist the new plan such as job loss and fear of pushing through construction projects at faster rates at the cost of the environment etc. Have simple strategies in place to help ease people's concerns and let people know the strategies so they can be eased.
- Don't cut people's jobs abruptly but rather assess through time what positions are needed. Start with maintaining positions (cuttings people's jobs and removing existing community involvement will hurt relationships)
- Rather, use the positive outcomes of the new ability to share resources the enhance local relationships that are currently lacking. If one local area has a strong and active relationship with their community find out what they are doing and share that knowledge with areas that lack

Other important things to keep in mind:
- Redundancy itself is not a system weakness. In many existing systems it is part of ensuring robust longevity and reduced error.
- Focus on bloat removal in processes and positions through training and role restructure rather than removal of working individuals (that way each part is 'well oiled' rather than top roles taking the brunt of work and being overloaded).
- Simple clear communication between parts with trust is key (lower levels need to be trusted - not everything needs to be known by a higher level as this micro management causes bloat in a system). Lower levels need to also trust higher levels to make decisions and cooperate together. Resistance without reason causes bloat.
- Changes can be difficult and overwhelming but have faith it will all work out.