Stewardship councils cut loose by MNR

Jeff Green | Oct 04, 2012

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources is ending the Ontario Stewardship Program.

The program has provided administrative and staffing support to 46 stewardship councils in all rural counties in Southern Ontario for the past 16 years.

In a letter to stewardship council chairs that was sent by email on September 27, Assistant Deputy Minister Carrie Hayward delivered the news that the local councils had been fearing ever since details of the 2012 provincial budget came out last spring, which indicated the MNR will be undergoing a transformation plan.

“As signalled in the 2012 Ontario Budget, one element of our transformation plan is to refocus our efforts in stewardship and partnership activities,” wrote Carrie Hayward.

Hayward then said that a number of other “stakeholders” have sprung up since the stewardship councils were created and they are capable of delivering some of the “resource management activities” that the stewardship councils have also been engaged in.

“Instead of focussing much of our assistance through stewardship councils, we will support a wider range of community groups. The result is that the Ontario Stewardship Program, with a stewardship coordinator dedicated to supporting each individual stewardship council’s work, will end.”

Hayward went on to say that 14 stewardship co-ordinators have been notified their positions have been “surplussed” and that 25 new “Partnership Specialist” positions, “working at the district level … with a broader range of stakeholders, are being created.”

For Gord Rodgers, the chair of the Frontenac Stewardship Council, the news was as much disappointing as it was expected.

“I am really disappointed with the MNR,” Rodgers said. “We have been hearing about this for over a year now, and the budget talked about change and consultation, but they did not respond to any of our requests for meetings. A request that a number of council chairs made to meet with the minister did not even get a response from the ministry.”

The Frontenac Stewardship Council has sponsored a number of projects in Frontenac County in recent years, including: tree planting programs; rehabilitating the habitat on Big Sandy Bay on Wolfe Island; providing funding for shoreline rehabilitation projects undertaken by rural landowners; developing a water unit for the grade 8 curriculum; producing the 48-page Naturally Rich Frontenacs booklet; providing financial support for lake management planning and fish spawning bed efforts; and working with foresters on woodlot management plans and on efforts to react to the butternut canker and emerald ash borer.

The Council has also sponsored well-attended talks on grey wolves, loons, fishers, and recently, the grey (black) ratsnake.

“Our efforts have always been geared towards working cooperatively with Frontenac County residents who are interested in improving the surrounding ecosystems. We work with people; we have nothing to do with the legal and regulatory aspects of the MNR. It is disappointing that the MNR is pulling away from such a cooperative aspect of their mandate,” said Rodgers.

The stewardship councils will not be forced to cease their operations, but in order to receive $10,000 in MNR funding support for the 2012-2103 year, they will need to incorporate or to have finalised an agreement with an incorporated sponsor by the end of 2012. Until now the councils have been under the ministry’s umbrella.

The MNR will cover insurance costs until the end of March 2013 for those councils that decide to carry on.

“The problem is that without the support of a dedicated MNR staff person to help us access grants in order to fund local projects, we will need to raise funds just to get a part-time person in place to then seek funding,” said Rodgers.

Rodgers said the Frontenac Stewardship Council would meet later in October to talk about the future, if any, of their activities.

It might be possible for councils from three or four counties to band together and form a regional council, perhaps with some municipal support, but Rodgers said nothing has been done so far in that regard.

“I haven’t talked to the chairs of the neighbouring councils yet,” he said. “The news is still fresh and I am pretty discouraged about it.”