The Ontario government is once again proposing sweeping changes to Provincial Conservation Authorities. Since the PC Party of Ontario came to power in 2019 it has passed several pieces of legislation limiting the powers of Ontario’s conservation authorities. This latest proposal represents the most significant change to date. Why should you care?
As background, the Conservation Authorities Act was created in 1946, driven by municipal government’s concern that unregulated development in one municipality would cause significant flooding and erosion damage in municipalities downstream. This concern was underlined in 1954 when Hurricane Hazel caused severe flooding in southern Ontario leading to property damage and deaths.
A watershed is the drainage area for a specific water system. It includes wetlands, creeks, streams, rivulets, lakes, and rivers that ultimately drain in the same direction. Watersheds do not conform to municipal boundaries. Accepted wisdom suggests the best way to control flooding and erosion is through autonomous agencies that will manage entire watersheds. Conservation Authorities were established, therefore, to have this holistic oversight of watershed management.
The Conservation Authorities Act allowed municipalities to work together on resource management and make land-use decisions at a watershed scale. They were also given a mandate to provide recreational and educational opportunities. The intent was to engage the public in having a sense of ownership and responsibility in preserving watersheds for the valuable ecological services that they deliver to the communities through which they flow.
The latest Provincial Government proposal, would create the Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency – a provincial board-governed oversight body. The stated benefit of the OPCA would be to provide centralized leadership, efficient governance, and strategic direction. The problem is that the OPCA duplicates functions that already exist. Each conservation authority already has its own board of directors composed of appointed municipal officials. The province, through the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, oversees the Act and provides policy direction, while the local board makes decisions on programs and operations that are specific to its watershed. The conservation authority is already accountable to its Board, to the municipalities that it serves and to the provincial government. It’s not clear, therefore, how inserting another layer of management oversight will improve efficiency. Yet it almost certainly will make the CAs less responsive to local conditions and municipal needs.
The other feature of this proposal would be to consolidate Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities into 7. The intent is to have fewer organizations with standardized policies and reduced fragmentation that would ostensibly streamline approval of development applications. Fewer organizations covering the same geographical area, however, means that each organization would, of necessity, be larger than what exists today. It’s not clear how this would improve organizational efficiency. Let’s look at the two CAs managing watersheds in Brampton.
The Credit River has its source waters in Dufferin County around Orangeville as well as in various parts of Caledon. It runs through the western part of Brampton, then into Mississauga where it flows into Lake Ontario. This watershed has geographical elements, water quality risks and plant and animal species that are specific to it.
As its name implies, the Credit Valley Conservation Authority deals with only one watershed. It supports hundreds of kilometers of trails, dozens of educational programs, a watershed plan and several on-going science and monitoring studies. It has a staff of 228 full-time employees according to Eluta, Canada’s Top 100 Employers Registry
The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority manages 9 watersheds, 3 of which flow through Brampton, (Etobicoke Creek, Mimico Creek, West Humber River). The TRCA has close to 500 full-time staff and more than 3,000 volunteers.
Both the Credit Valley Conservation Authority and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority are large process and science driven organizations. That means they can be unwieldy to deal with at times. It turns out that managing complex watersheds takes time and resources. Like cooking a great meal, the process is better when not rushed. It’s not clear how the processes will be more efficient by consolidating their number and giving each more responsibility.
Case in point. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to have developed excellent relationships with staff at both CVC and TRCA which have led to collaborations on initiatives such as the Heart Lake Road Ecology Monitoring Project, Bike the Creek, and more recently, BEA programs such as Rooted in Hope and Graceful Aging Through Connecting with Nature. I can’t imagine how these relationships, or these projects, would have come to be if I had to deal with a Conservation Authority that is potentially 6 times larger than what exists today. The mandate would be so broad that relationships with individual citizens or local environmental organizations would all but impossible.
Also, one size does not fit all when it comes to watershed management. Rural and urban characteristics drive a very different set of needs, and watersheds with different geographies, topologies and hydrology experience different types of risks and requirements. Lumping these together will be unlikely to yield efficiencies. Local watershed requirements will be subverted to the needs of large land developers, even more so than the imbalance that exists today. And any possible standardization or economies of scale could be driven by the Ministry without the need to go through the upheaval and costs associated with a reorganization of this magnitude.
The provincial government is entertaining comments from the public on this proposal until December 22nd. If, like me, you are concerned that this proposal introduces risks to a system that has been largely working for the past 70 plus years then please, click on the button link below and let the province know how you feel. The health of our watersheds hangs in the balance.
Please see the joint letter organized by Ontario Nature and signed by 97 organizations imploring the Provincial Government not to proceed with this consolidation plan