After 79 years in existence, Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities (CA) face amalgamation into a few large regional jurisdictions, overseen by a new central provincial agency.
Why it matters: A streamlined Conservation Authority could maximize efficiencies and programming; however, concerns remain that decision-making will become more political and less science-based.
The forthcoming legislation, announced on Oct. 31 by Todd McCarthy, Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks, and recently appointed Chief Conservation Officer, Hassan Basit, purports to standardize development approvals while providing greater support for under-resourced Conservation Authorities.
Significant amalgamation
The government’s press release stated Ontario’s current Conservation Authority system is “fragmented,” with each of the 36 jurisdictions maintaining “different policies, standards, fees and levels of staffing and technical capabilities. This has led to unpredictable and inconsistent turnaround times for approvals across all conservation authorities, creating uncertainty and delays for builders, landowners and farmers seeking permits and undermining conservation authorities’ ability to protect communities from floods and natural hazards.”
The proposed changes include creating an overarching Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency to centralize “strategic direction and oversight of all conservation authorities,” and “free-up resources for front-line conservation” to ensure faster, consistent and transparent permitting and support of the core mandate to efficiently and consistently manage watersheds and protect people and property from natural hazards.
The centralized agency will also:
• develop a single digital permitting platform to provide a faster, more predictable approvals process and improved customer service
• streamlining and standardizing service delivery by setting clear, province-wide performance standards and supporting consistent application with centralized data and updated floodplain mapping
• overseeing the implementation of a regional, watershed-based consolidation of conservation authorities.
Job losses possible
When asked whether people would lose their jobs as a result of such a significant amalgamation, McCarthy said no; however, he repeatedly stressed CA staff would be “redeployed” to front-line work.
Several professionals working within Ontario’s CA system believe job losses are almost inevitable.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one source expects many highly specialized staff – scientists, agricultural stewardship specialists, educators, GIS specialists, foresters, and many others – who have spent years building CA careers won’t accept redeployment into core frontline positions, forcing them to leave. The government can then continue to claim it fired no one.
“We do the work because we love the work and the place that we live. We know the people and politics of the location, and also know the environment, and are best placed to make those things work together,” they said, adding that CA streamlining rumours have been swirling for a while, but the proposed change is far more significant than expected.
A second conservation professional agreed that job losses are likely, even if only applied to reductions in temporary or contract staff positions and redeployment of existing staff. They added that each CA has several third-party contracts that require review as part of the regional amalgamation.
“Having one online tool for permit applications for the province – that’s a big one because each individual Conservation Authority is handling that with the perspective of community needs,” the conservation professional said. “There are a lot of unanswered questions. Personally, to me, it looks a lot like the Ontario Parks model.”
Less science, more politics
Government resources say the proposed regional boundaries of each amalgamated Conservation Authority will be based on continued flood and water management, reduction of administrative overlap and duplication, balancing of expertise and capacity across conservation authorities, and “ensuring uninterrupted delivery of local conservation authority programs.”
Under the current system, McCarthy said more than half of all municipalities served by CAs “fall within the jurisdiction of two or more Conservation Authorities, resulting in unnecessary duplication that diverts resources from front-line conservation work and service delivery. If the consolidation is implemented as proposed, this would be reduced by 63 per cent.”
CA boundaries currently align with Ontario’s natural watershed boundaries and, in some instances, urban areas overlay these natural boundaries. As a conservation professional describes, changes to CA jurisdictions will not change where water flows.
“When we talked to people about a watershed, one of the things we say is municipal boundaries don’t line up with watershed boundaries, and decisions in one municipality can affect municipalities downstream,” they said. “What the government is proposing takes the science out of it and makes it more of a political boundary.”
Potential benefits
Conversely, there is speculation that the Ford government’s proposed changes could have some positive effect.
According to the second conservation professional, some smaller regions could benefit from greater resource sharing, reiterating that the conservation parklands beloved by Ontario residents “are not going anywhere.”
Many unknowns remain, however.
“They told us today, along with the rest of the public, we’re amalgamating down from 36 [Conservation Authorities] to several, but we don’t know who, we don’t know how,” the professional said. “It’s going to change a bit how we interact with the public…Conservation Authorities were a grassroots movement by the community, for the community. I just hope that doesn’t get lost.”
Mark Peacock, Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority’s Chief Administrative Officer, pointed to potential benefits.
“I don’t think anybody argues we could do with some of the tools they could provide us,” Peacock told Farmtario. He stressed that a CA’s purpose is to provide resources and services at the local level, and maintaining local connections is critical to remain effective. Municipalities provide CAs with funding and input on spending, so significantly increasing the number of municipalities contributing to a much larger conservation jurisdiction could result in individual municipalities feeling less engaged.
“We have to be able to provide local services for people…Even things like operating dams. You can’t operate a dam in Chatham from Cambridge,” said Peacock. “In this new framework, we have to figure out how to maintain some input on a local basis from those that fund the Conservation Authority, or it’s not going to work.”
“Unless we do this model right, we will lose. But I think we can do it right with this model.”
The Ford government stated it will open a consultation period on proposed boundaries for the regional consolidation of Conservation Authorities. This consultation will include a policy proposal notice period posted on the Environmental Registry of Ontario for 45 days, inviting review and comments.
Angela Coleman, Conservation Ontario’s general manager, said the organization is generally supportive of the province’s efforts to provide additional resources and modernization to Conservation Authorities. She hastened to add that further details on how amalgamation will impact local communities are required, but Conservation Ontario shares the province’s stated intention to continue supporting effective programming and services at the watershed level.
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