We do not support this…

We do not support this amalgamation of conservation authorities as presented. The Province of Ontario has reduced a large majority of funding to our conservation authorities. Thus they are relying a great deal on local donations and bequests through Wills and Estates. With these large new authorities that funding will not continue. The donations are made strictly for local trails, properties, and for the local authorities to have the resources to make decisions around watersheds, dams, building and development decision. The local financial support will not continue, of which we can speak first-hand. We follow applications in our local municipalities and we can speak first-hand it is definitely not our local conservation authorities holding up application. They are making the decisions to protect our watersheds and environmentally protected areas that are necessary to preserve. Our Province of Ontario Government is making decisions that are reckless, and this amalgamation is just an extension of the Greenbelt scandal. All in the name to ‘build,build, build’ without any regard to what makes Ontario beautiful. We see subdivisions that should be complete by now sitting unfinished because the developers aren’t making the $$$’s they had anticipated, so they’ve stopped building. We all know we could have the homes built by now if the developers just committed to the areas already approved. If an area or property does not get approval from the conservation authorities there is a reason - these decisions are being made to protect land owners as well as home owners in the long-run so they don’t experience flooding, etc. We all know a large body of bureaucrats that are nowhere close to the area will be making decisions and will just push decisions through. and if the Province thinks they are going to travel to every area for inspection, you can count on these decisions to take even longer, that is, if they do their job correctly. And we’re quite confident the Province of a Ontario is counting on them not inspecting the properties and areas.
Additional concerns are in regards to existing conservation managed properties. A good majority of these properties were gifted to the local authorities knowing they would be managed locally with inspections, signage, etc. kept up to date. Why would anyone going forward donate land to this conglomerate authority, not knowing how it would be managed. Will current activities still be allowed as that can take local management and we’re just not confident this can continue without local donates to help fund these costs. As an example, will hunting still be allowed on these properties, cross country skiing in the winter, swimming areas?
These proposed amalgamated authorities are too large and far-reaching. We can appreciate if a few local authorities could be amalgamated, but this proposal has not been well thought out. We can only hope the comments from our local authorities will be well received by the Province and changes will be made.