{"id":278423,"date":"2025-11-12T14:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/278423\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T14:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:56:08","slug":"here-are-ontarios-proposed-new-conservation-authorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/278423\/","title":{"rendered":"Here are Ontario’s proposed new conservation authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ontario plans to reduce the number of conservation authorities from 36 down to seven.<\/p>\n

These authorities<\/a> monitor water levels and erosion, manage recreation, teach people about the environment and more.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the government said more than half of municipalities fall under two conservation authorities, making situations more difficult for them.<\/p>\n

“Right now, Ontario has 36 conservation authorities operating largely on their own, with fragmented and outdated data systems and a patchwork of standards and service delivery,” said Environment Minister Todd McCarthy on Oct. 31. <\/p>\n

Its current plan wouldn\u2019t cut out all of the duplication: the province writes that about 63 per cent of the overlap would be reduced. <\/p>\n

The proposed changes would be more efficient for communities, the province said, while keeping the same funding and mandate.<\/p>\n

There are environmental concerns about what the consolidation will mean.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one wants inefficiency, but I think everyone wants permits to be issued in a way that does protect people, their homes, their businesses from risks,” said Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence.<\/p>\n

“As we know with climate change and the rain events that we get more and more, they’re more and more intense.”<\/p>\n

He said the proposals could mean less access to expert knowledge around flood risks, human health and where to build.<\/p>\n

The detailed plans have been posted for public comment<\/a> until late December.<\/p>\n

7 proposed Regional Conservation Authorities<\/p>\n

Central Lake Ontario<\/p>\n

Covers most of Toronto and much of the surrounding area from York Region through to Peel Region, Durham and part of the Kawarthas. Brampton and Mississauga are partly included.<\/p>\n

Eastern Lake Ontario<\/p>\n

Covers areas draining into eastern Lake Ontario and the Bay of Quinte. This would include Belleville, Oshawa and Peterborough.<\/p>\n

Huron-Superior<\/p>\n

Covers watersheds including Lake Huron\u2019s northern shore and the Lake Superior basin. This would be the authority for Barrie, Owen Sound and Thunder Bay.<\/p>\n

Lake Erie<\/p>\n

Covers southwestern Ontario, including watersheds draining into Lake Erie. This would include Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Sarnia and Windsor, plus some of Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Northeastern Ontario<\/p>\n

Spans parts of Northern Lake Huron and the Upper Ottawa River systems, including North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and Timmins.<\/p>\n

St. Lawrence<\/p>\n

Covers watersheds flowing into the St. Lawrence River. This would include Cornwall, Kingston and Ottawa.<\/p>\n

Western Lake Ontario<\/p>\n

Covers the western Lake Ontario shoreline from Niagara through Halton and Peel. This would include parts of Brampton, Hamilton, Mississauga and Toronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-278423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}