{"id":378428,"date":"2025-12-31T01:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T01:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/378428\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T01:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T01:54:14","slug":"kingston-slams-forced-merger-of-ontarios-conservation-authorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/378428\/","title":{"rendered":"Kingston slams \u2018forced\u2019 merger of Ontario\u2019s conservation authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Outdoor Centre at the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area, one of several conservation areas that protected and managed by Cataraqui Conservation, in a fresh layer of snow. Photo via CRCA website.<\/p>\n

Kingston city councillors urged the Ontario government to stop a forced merger of conservation authorities and not to fix a system that they say isn\u2019t broken.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are sounding the alarm that this is quite a change for us,\u201d said Countryside District Councillor Gary Oosterhof, a leading voice on the trail of conservation preservation.<\/p>\n

Oosterhof, a long-time Board member of the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority (CRCA), put forward a municipal motion that opposes provincial plans to fold three-dozen conservation authorities into seven regional bodies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CRCA, also known as Cataraqui Conservation Authority, would become part of the much larger St. Lawrence Regional Conservation Authority, comprised of 46 municipalities in eastern Ontario, to oversee watershed management, according to the province, which recently amended the Conservation Authorities Act to lay the groundwork for consolidation.<\/p>\n

\"\"Proposed Regional Conservation Authority areas. Image via City of Kingston documents.<\/p>\n

Conservation services like flood forecasting, land use planning, recreational trails, and local governance could be eroded or eliminated under a larger bureaucracy, Oosterhof warned.<\/p>\n

Oosterhof said the CRCA is a good size with the 11 partner municipalities under its current jurisdiction, of which Kingston is the largest, and provides efficient services with a $6.8 million annual budget. The City contributes about $2 million a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t get done for a better price,\u201d he said of the CRCA\u2019s existing operations.<\/p>\n

Other city councillors shared his concerns and frustrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s asking for this?\u201d wondered Kingscourt-Rideau District Councillor Brandon Tozzo, who is also worried about reduced local control and input over conservation policies.<\/p>\n

Councillors rallied to support Oosterhof\u2019s pre-Christmas motion affirming \u201cstrong support for the continued independence of the Cataraqui Conservation Authority (CCA).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of those instances where bigger isn\u2019t better,\u201d added Pittsburgh District Councillor Ryan Boehme in a political debate to oppose the planned conservation amalgamation during the Council meeting held Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025.<\/p>\n

City staff presented an information report<\/a> at the same Council meeting that pointed out the province does not intend to change the mandated programs and services of conservation authorities, but staff cautioned the future structure of regional conservation bodies may \u201cnot be as nimble and responsive to local issues, development approvals, or conservation area management.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report also repeated provincial statements that regional consolidation would not result in layoffs of front-line staff, and existing conservation offices would remain as field offices.<\/p>\n

But councillors aren\u2019t convinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see this working as well,\u201d said Loyalist-Cataraqui District Councillor Paul Chaves.<\/p>\n

Portsmouth District Councillor Don Amos (who serves as Council\u2019s appointee on the CRCA Board along with Councillors Oosterhof, Lisa Osanic, and Wendy Stephen) suggested the conservation streamlining effort is \u201cnot going to bode well\u201d when it comes to local accountability and fiscal responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a forced amalgamation and back office integration, sometimes it works\u2026 and most times it doesn\u2019t end well for anybody except the taxpayer ends up paying more,\u201d said Amos.<\/p>\n

He likened the controversial plan to the recent provincial move to scrap speed cameras based on Toronto-focused complaints from Premier Doug Ford that it turned into a municipal \u201ccash grab.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis feels like a Toronto, once again, issue that\u2019s being doled out to the rest of the province.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amos said there is no way that service levels and community values will be preserved through a regional conservation authority of such magnitude.<\/p>\n

The proposed St. Lawrence Regional Conservation Authority would encompass watersheds flowing into the St. Lawrence River, coordinating flood and water management across eastern Ontario, primarily based on the Upper St. Lawrence, Lower Ottawa River, and southern portion of the Central Ottawa River Secondary Watersheds.<\/p>\n

\"\"Proposed St. Lawrence Regional Conservation Authority area. Image via City of Kingston documents.<\/p>\n

Municipalities merged into this regional body would span from Kingston to Cornwall and north to Ottawa and Carleton Place, covering 18,500 square kilometres \u2014 more than three times larger than Prince Edward Island \u2014 compared with the CRCA\u2019s existing jurisdiction of 3,800 square kilometres.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear how the St. Lawrence Regional Conservation Authority\u2019s governance model would be structured with over 40 member municipalities. Each regional authority would fall under the power of the newly-created Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency.<\/p>\n

Councillors scoffed at a staff report suggesting that if the current representation model is followed, then the regional authority in eastern Ontario could see a board with as many as 70 appointed members.<\/p>\n

The province set aside six weeks to hear public feedback on the proposed new conservation boundaries and criteria for regional consolidation, but not on whether it should actually occur. The deadline to comment expired on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, just days after Council\u2019s motion called on the province to save the existing structure.<\/p>\n

A furious Tozzo said the consolidation scheme amounts to the erosion of local powers of a system that\u2019s already working just fine.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis [deserves] a lump of coal in Doug Ford\u2019s stocking, if I could do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full agenda for the most recent meeting of Kingston City Council can be read on the City\u2019s website<\/a> (click \u2018View All\u2019 at the bottom of the list under the heading \u2018Meeting Calendar\u2019 to get to the City\u2019s calendar to view agendas for meetings that have already occurred). Meetings can be viewed virtually (during or after the meeting) in the video feature within the relevant Council agenda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Outdoor Centre at the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area, one of several conservation areas that protected and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[161390,49,48,161391,45420,45421,45422,161392,161393,161394,161395,43106,295,161396,105736,54342,148315,161397,161398,21256,161399,66,161400],"class_list":["post-378428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-40-member-municipalities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cataraqui-conservation-authority","tag-cataraqui-region-conservation-authority-crca","tag-city-of-kingston","tag-conservation-authorities","tag-councillor-brandon-tozzo","tag-councillor-don-amos","tag-councillor-gary-oosterhof","tag-councillor-paul-chaves","tag-eastern-ontario","tag-environment","tag-erosion-of-local-powers","tag-kfla","tag-kingston","tag-kingston-city-council","tag-merger-of-conservation-authorities","tag-new-conservation-boundaries","tag-ontario-government","tag-ontario-provincial-conservation-agency","tag-science","tag-st-lawrence-regional-conservation-authority-rca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378428","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=378428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}