Ontario survey seeking public input on the future of Conservation Authorities

Jeff Green | Mar 04, 2020

On August 19 of 2019, the Ontario Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks Jeff Yurek, sent a letter to the 36 Conservation Authorities (CA’s) in the province.  The letter told them to wind down certain ‘non-mandated’ services while the province reviews legislative changes to how the CA’s operate.

These ‘non-mandated’ services include a wide-range of programs including water quality testing, tree planting programs, wood lot management, trail management, and more.

Since then, however, the province has moderated their position. Meanwhile, the CA’s, and the municipalities who fund them, and and make use of their services, have been in a holding pattern.

The first change came when the province began saying that non-mandated programs may indeed continue to be delivered, but will require more explicit oversight by municipalities. Until now, CA’s come to their boards once a year with a budget, and once that is approved, they have delivered a basket of services throughout their watersheds. The change will add a new layer of bureaucracy that could be time consuming to manage, but also may offer municipalities flexibility to opt in or out of services.

Last fall, the ministry began a consultation process by meeting with each of the 36 Conservation Authorities, 4 of which include territory in Frontenac County (Quinte Region, Cataraqui Region, Mississippi Valley and Rideau Valley).

Katrina Furlanetto is the General Manager of the Cataraqui Region CA (CRCA). She took on that role in early October, just as the review process got underway.

“We were encouraged that the ministry decided to hold one on one consultations so they could receive feedback directly from each one of us. The consultations were a good opportunity for us to talk about what we do and how we do it. Since then they have met with stakeholder groups and are now conducting a survey online to get more feedback,” she said.

The survey, which is available at ontario.ca/form/survey-ontario-conservation-authorities is designed for people who are familiar with CA operations.

The core mandates for Conservation Authorities’ is centred on protection against natural hazards, which includes flood control, and source water protection for municipal water supplies. These services, which are provincially funded, account for a minor portion, under 5%, of the annual budget of CA’s. The rest of the services, and the funds that pay for them, come from municipal sources.

The CRCA, like the other CA’s that cover Frontenac County, studies each of the larger lakes within their watershed, and provides state of the lake reports for the benefit of local property owners, lake associations, and municipalities. This service is one that is outside of the core mandate, and is funded through municipal taxes as part of the overall CA budget.

“The province could say this can’t be a mandatory service. It could become a choice that the local municipalities make. We are really already working on behalf of our municipality with this kind of service, the province is just trying to put some structure and consistency across the province,” Furlanetto said.

Until now, none of the changes that have been contemplated have had any major impact on CRCA’s operations or staffing levels, she added. For the most part it has been the management team that has been most involved in providing information to government officials, the board that oversees the CA, and local municipalities.

She said that she does not know when the outcome, of what has become a comprehensive governance review, will be announced and when the changes will come about. Budgets for CA’s are generally prepared in the early fall.

South Frontenac Council passed a motion earlier this winter supporting the work of CRCA. The the chair of the CRCA board is South Frontenac Councillor Alan Revill.

Frontenac County is also engaged with the CRCA, as a potential landlord. The county and the CA are planning to share office space at the Frontenac County headquarters in Glenburnie. The CRCA offices are currently located at the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area, which is located in rural Kingston, just north of Hwy. 401. The CRCA is planning to move its administration office, but will be maintaining the public programming at the Conservation Area.