On behalf of the Council of…

On behalf of the Council of the Municipality of North Perth, I am writing this letter to you to provide North Perth’s comments on your Ministry’s proposed amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act, the reduction in the Provincial Natural Hazards Management Grant and continued support required for the Water and Erosion Control Infrastructure program.

The Municipality of North Perth is deeply concerned with the proposed amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act and the impact these amendments will have on the programs and services that the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) provides for our municipality. The mandatory programs proposed by your Ministry via these amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act do not reflect the extent of conservation work that is needed across the Maitland River watershed.

North Perth is particularly concerned that under the proposed amendments, Watershed Stewardship Services will not be considered a mandatory program.

North Perth strongly believes that watershed stewardship services should be included as a mandatory program of Conservation Authorities as one of the primary reasons for the formation of Conservation Authorities was so municipalities and residents could work together on a watershed basis to conserve water and related land resources such as floodplains, river valleys and wetlands. MVCA currently provides a range of important stewardship programs to North Perth and our neighbouring municipalities in the Maitland and Nine Mile watersheds that are critical to protecting our prime agricultural land, soil health and water quality. If the MVCA is unable to levy for stewardship services, the continuation of these services is severely at risk.

In addition, North Perth is concerned with your intention to make the Drinking Source Protection Program a mandatory service that Conservation Authorities will have to levy their municipalities for. This service has been funded by the provincial government since its establishment by the Province in 2006. The transfer of funding responsibility to Conservation Authorities and their member municipalities will place additional burdens on municipalities that have already experienced provincial cut-backs in other areas. This amendment will put the protection of drinking water at risk.

In addition to the proposed amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act, the Municipality of North Perth is severely concerned with the recently announced 48% reduction in funding from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry for the MVCA’s natural hazard management program.

The services provided by MVCA to North Perth under the natural hazard management program – flood forecasting and warning, flood emergency planning support and preventative maintenance for flood and erosion control infrastructure in Listowel – are critical. As a result, all of the provincial funding reductions for flood management will need to be recovered by our local municipal ratepayers or the municipal risk for dealing with flooding will increase. This is extremely problematic considering the stronger and more frequent flood events Ontario communities are experiencing as result of climate change impacts.

In recognition of the proposed changes to the Conservation Authorities Act and funding reductions from the MNRF, the Municipality of North Perth strongly requests that the Province continue to support the Water and Erosion Control Infrastructure (WECI) program so that communities such as North Perth can continue to maintain and upgrade the flood damage reduction infrastructure that was constructed in partnership with the Province. It is important that the Province helps municipalities protect this joint investment through continued funding through the WECI program.

In closing, the Municipality of North Perth thanks the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks and Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry for consideration of our comments on the issues noted above. Please feel free to contact me if you require more information.

Sincerely,

Kriss Snell, Chief Administrative Officer
Municipality of North Perth
P: 519-292-2040
E: ksnell@northperth.ca