Submission: Key…

Submission: Key Considerations for Regional Conservation Authority Consolidation

1. Supporting a Successful Transition

Ensure paying municipalities and local donors can see their contributions directly benefit their communities.

Retain local offices and staff with knowledge of lands, partners, and community needs to maintain continuity and effectiveness.

Focus consolidation efforts on smaller, under-resourced CAs that could benefit from additional expertise and capacity, rather than well-established, effective authorities.

2. Opportunities and Benefits

Regional frameworks can provide small CAs with technical support, staffing, and funding stability.

Carefully planned mergers may improve efficiency and reduce duplication of administrative tasks.

Oversized regions risk losing local effectiveness; boundaries should reflect manageable, locally meaningful areas. These regions are too large!

3. Governance Structure

All contributing municipalities must have a voice at the board level.

Board composition should balance proportional representation with protections for smaller municipalities.

Boundaries should be reconsidered to ensure regions remain effective; for example, Quinte, Lower Trent, and Crowe could form one functional region. Adding in the kawarthas and ganaraska is simply too large of an area ( your proposed Eastern Lake Ontario Regional CA)

4. Transparent and Consultative Budgeting

Municipalities must see how their funds are invested locally. This will be very challenging within such large CAs.

Budgets should be developed and reported transparently, with municipal input and clear allocation to local projects.

5. Maintaining Relationships with Communities and Stakeholders

Keep local staff who understand community needs and relationships.

Engage communities through consultations, public meetings, and advisory committees.

Ensure local projects are visible and demonstrate tangible benefits.

Maintain partnerships with landowners, stewardship groups, schools, and volunteers.

Use regular communication to keep stakeholders informed and connected.

6. Protection of Donated Lands

Many CA-owned lands were donated by individuals with the expectation that they would be protected and stewarded according to the donors’ intentions.

Maintaining these protections is critical for public trust and for encouraging future donations.

For example, my family donated land to the Lower Trent Conservation Authority. The proposed regional consolidation raises concern that such lands could be lost, undervalued, or deprioritized within a much larger regional CA.

Any consolidation framework must include explicit safeguards to ensure donated lands continue to be managed according to donor wishes and remain valued within the local community.