The Conservation Authority …

The Conservation Authority (CA) should be strengthened and returned to full funding.  For nearly 80 years the CA has been protecting public health and safety by safeguarding local drinking water sources and reducing risks of natural hazards like flooding, erosion and drought.  This is especially important as Ontario's population increases.  The CA must regulate development to minimize these risks ie./ issue permits to sustainable construction/growth.
Over the last 6 years 4 bills have reduced the 36 CA ability to do their job and allows unqualified government ministers to overrule their decisions and now the government wants to diminish the number of CA. Reducing the number of CA from 36 to 7 and then building another agency on top is MORE bureaucracy.  The boundaries for the 36 CA are already defined by science and nature ie./ watershed based.  The CA should have been consulted for boundary changes instead of being surprised to find out their organization is being hijacked by individuals with no science based understanding of processes.  What evidence is there that the CA's are not efficient?  Especially when they already meet their targets on turnaround time for housing permits.  This is just another powergrab from the Conservative government.
The point of the 36 CA's is to have local expertise on flood protection and safeguard water resources.  This interference by the government to haphazardly change boundaries will put experts far away from local communities--especially with Huron-Superior which is the size of a small country and too varied in geography/watershed.  Rural low density areas will suffer the most with expertise shifting to big population centres.
When you don't have a functional and properly funded CA things 'fall through the cracks'.  When soil/water is contaminated this leads to environmental damage and/or poor health outcomes.  Hopefully the people of Ontario will remember the incompetence and corruption of this government when this boundary fiasco fails and we will finally be rid of this unfit government.