By giving the power to the…

By giving the power to the Minister who is a political decision-maker from the conservation authorities, there is a real risk that despite the process outlined in the proposal, the Minister may let political concerns and pressures outweigh safety concerns related to natural hazards. It is important that decisions made concerning natural hazards are made based an apolitical risk assessment, as opposed to the Minister who might be incentivized to ignore safety risks if it helps them achieve their goal of 1.5 million homes.

The proposal also does not include any information to suggest that Conservation Authorities have been failing in their job of mitigating natural hazards. Allowing a political figure to overrule them creates an unreasonable risk that natural hazards or the risk of natural hazard like floods may be ignored. I urge the government to keep decisions concerning natural hazards in the hands of Conservation authorities, and away from political decision-makers.