Opposition grows to Conservation Authority reform

EASTERN ONTARO – Municipalities, agricultural organizations, and now conservation authorities themselves are calling for the provincial government to rethink reforms to Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities.

Locally, all six municipal councils, and SDG Counties council have adopted motions asking for changes to the Ontario government’s plan to eliminate the current system of conservation authorities and replace them with seven regional agencies. Those agencies would be overseen by a provincial agency.

This week, South Nation Conservation, one of the 36 CAs that would be eliminated, issued a release highlighting the benefits of local management.

SNC said that while partners support modernizing conservation authorities, and standardizing rules across boundaries when it comes to land use and development. One of the goals from the provincial legislation, yet to be passed, is to end land use issues where a municipality that is covered by more than one conservation authority has to deal with multiple and not always compatible sets of rules.

The local conservation authority claims that the province’s view that CAs are not supported by farmers is false and that in eastern Ontario this “do not reflect the experiences.” However, a submission made by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture on December 22 does not back that up.

In fact, while agreeing that standard rule sets are required across the province, the OFA proposes merging conservation authorities into 19 organizations, in line with source water protection region boundaries. Under that model, South Nation and Raisin River conservation authorities would merge themselves instead of also merging with three additional conservation authorities under the province’s plan.

The OFA’s submission also includes keeping local control over the operation of conservation authorities, but also adding that agriculture and rural land owners should have a greater say in that local governance model.

“A Source Protection Region-based structure may also promote a more equitable distribution of resources across Conservation Authorities, leading to greater consistency in available services and the quality of service delivery,” the submission to the province said.

The OFA also asked for representation on the provincial agency that will oversee the new regional conservation authorities.