I grew up on the headwaters…

I grew up on the headwaters of the Grand River. The GRCA was an important partner in landscape stewardship for my father's dairy farm, which was then managed by my brother, and now by my nephew. The GRCA has worked with those three generations, and continues to do so. The landscape/watershed knowledge of GRCA staff has always been exceptional.

I agree with the Wildlife Conservation Society's assessment of the Ford government's proposed changes to CAs in Ontario, which is:

"When Hurricane Hazel hit southern Ontario in 1954, it tested a governance choice made by the province a decade earlier: The creation of Conservation Authorities with a mandate to manage whole watersheds. That foresight still matters. As climate-driven floods and erosion intensify, the logic of watershed-scale planning and monitoring has only become clearer. Conservation Authorities were designed to work at the scale nature does. Namely, the watershed.

CAs were never meant to be narrow regulators. Their original mandate was to restore watershed health after decades of forest clearing and poorly planned development. That mandate is more relevant now, not less. At a time when fragmented decision-making still produces cumulative damage, Conservation Authorities offer a model worth strengthening and celebrating. Not dismantling. Yet in recent years, the trend has moved in the opposite direction."

As such, I am opposed to these changes. However, the Ford government has shown over and over that it is a threat, not a steward, to the Ontario natural environment. I don't expect my input to make a whit of difference.