{"id":361895,"date":"2025-12-22T15:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/361895\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T15:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:03:07","slug":"only-hours-left-to-voice-your-concerns-about-conservation-authority-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/361895\/","title":{"rendered":"Only hours left to voice your concerns about conservation authority changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soo Finnish Nordic Ski Club is among groups speaking out against plan to consolidate Ontario&#8217;s 36 conservation authorities \u2014 including the Sault&#8217;s \u2014 into seven<\/p>\n<p>Today is the last chance to share your opinion on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sootoday.com\/ontario-news\/ontario-to-consolidate-conservation-authorities-create-new-oversight-agency-11425890\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ford government\u2019s plan<\/a> to consolidate the province\u2019s 36 conservation authorities into seven regional bodies \u2014 a move that would lump in Sault Ste. Marie with Timmins, North Bay and Sudbury.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>If approved, the Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority would become part of the new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sootoday.com\/local-news\/new-local-conservation-authority-includes-sudbury-timmins-and-the-soo-11481340\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Northeastern Ontario Regional Conservation Authority<\/a>. Its focus, the Ford government says, would be \u201cmaintaining healthy waterways, protecting natural habitats, and promoting sustainable land and water use across major watershed areas that span parts of Northern Lake Huron, the Abitibi, Missinaibi, Mattagami, Wanipitai, French, and Upper Ottawa River systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Locally, the plan has been widely criticized. Sault Ste. Marie City Council <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sootoday.com\/local-news\/sault-fights-back-against-proposed-changes-to-conservation-authorities-11625007\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">voted last week<\/a> to oppose the proposal, calling on the province to instead \u201cmaintain existing conservation authorities in northern Ontario that recognize our geographic realities and ensure strong local representation related to municipal levies, community-focused service delivery, and the protection and management of conservation lands.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Soo Finnish Nordic Ski Club is also calling on its members to voice their objections to the plan. Along with Hiawatha Highlands, their trail systems operate on conservation authority lands.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Soo Finnish Nordic Ski Club is concerned amalgamation could reduce local decision-making, delay trail maintenance and permitting, and weaken long-standing community and volunteer partnerships,\u201d it said in a statement. \u201cThe club supports efficient governance, but believes local lands, recreation, and stewardship require local oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"E261\" is=\"qowt-word-para\" qowt-eid=\"E261\" qowt-entry=\"undefined\" qowt-lvl=\"undefined\">People have until midnight tonight to submit their comments <a href=\"https:\/\/ero.ontario.ca\/notice\/025-1257\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soo Finnish Nordic Ski Club is among groups speaking out against plan to consolidate Ontario&#8217;s 36 conservation authorities&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66,155678],"class_list":{"0":"post-361895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-soo-finish-nordic-ski-clubconservation-amalgamation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361895","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=361895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}