Province’s plan to consolidate Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities into seven has divided opinions locally
Today is the last chance to share your opinion on the Ford government’s plan to consolidate the province’s 36 conservation authorities into seven regional bodies.
What looks like bureaucratic “restructuring” on paper is, in reality, a direct risk to the only lake in Ontario with its own legislated watershed protection plan, warns advocates.
Lake Simcoe is protected under the Lake Simcoe Protection Act, 2008, and the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan — a comprehensive, watershed-specific plan grounded in decades of science and local work.
Ontario insists the revamp would improve services and result in no job losses. The proposed areas for the seven new regional authorities will also be better aligned with natural watersheds and help reduce duplication, the province says.
While there’s a general sense of support if the planned amalgamation delivers services more efficiently and more economically, there’s also great concern about how the plan would be rolled out and how it would impact the local municipalities the conservation authorities were created to protect.
“The goal of modernizing conservation authorities to better address today’s challenges, and to create more consistency in permitting and technical expertise across the network, makes sense. And, if executed thoughtfully, it could lead to efficiencies and much more resilience across the province,” Rob Baldwin, chief administrative officer at the Lake Simcoe Regional Conservation Authority (LSRCA), said in an email.
The LSRCA’s catchment area includes Barrie, Oro-Medonte, Innisfil, Bradford West Gwillimbury and Ramara, as well as other municipalities in the watershed in York and Durham regions.
“The government has said that no changes to day-to-day operations are being proposed, so I think that’s reassuring and brings a level of confidence that services to municipalities won’t be impacted,” Baldwin added.
Jonathan Scott, chair of the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA), which includes Barrie, The Blue Mountains, Bradford, Collingwood, Clearview, Essa, Innisfil, Oro-Medonte, Springwater and Wasaga Beach, among other municipalities, says he agrees with some of the proposed changes.
“The government is right to want a conservation authority system that is more consistent, transparent and efficient to build more homes faster,” said Scott, although he was concerned that such a drastic consolidation could wreak havoc if not properly managed.
He contends the government’s amalgamation plan could risk creating a larger, more distant bureaucracy that’s less accountable and less responsive to local needs.
The strength of Ontario’s current model lies in its local expertise — staff who understand the watersheds, municipalities, businesses and communities they serve,” Scott said. “Losing that local connection could make the very housing and infrastructure approvals the province wants to speed up more cumbersome and less responsive to local assistance to move files forward.
“In other words, a bigger, less nimble, more distant bureaucracy could well have the opposite effect of the government’s goal to speed up approvals for building homes and creating jobs,” he added.
People have until midnight tonight to submit their comments HERE.
— With files from Wayne Doyle