ERO Response

The purpose of this submission is to provide the collective feedback of the 36 Conservation Authorities (CAs) who are the members of Conservation Ontario.

To prepare this submission we have taken input from: elected officials, Indigenous community members, board members, municipalities, CA and municipal leadership and staff, businesses, concerned citizens, environmental groups, agricultural groups, and other partners.

In an organization as diverse as Conservation Ontario, there are a range of opinions, which reflect: local preferences, circumstances, and watershed needs. This diversity is accommodated by the current structure of CAs and is a strength of the current model.

Members are concerned that this would be lost by the ERO Proposal. By consolidating to seven CAs, the result would be organizations too large to deliver effective governance, oversight, and accountability to municipal funders and their residents and taxpayers.

Based on these consultations, we report that a majority of our members:

• support the broad goals of the government of achieving better outcomes;
• oppose the changes outlined in the ERO Proposal as a means of achieving those goals; and,
• support continued evolution of the system and prefer alternatives to the Proposal that would result in voluntary consolidation, supported by adequate business rationale and time for meaningful consultation, including with First Nations/Indigenous rights holders.

In the alternative, should the government decide to proceed with the ERO Proposal, we recommend measures to mitigate risks inherent in this ERO Proposal.

This includes an innovative model whereby the “back office” operations of the CAs would be consolidated, as contemplated by the ERO Proposal, but local boards would be retained for accountability and decision-making.

In keeping with our culture of decision-making, we have encouraged individual CAs to send their own submissions commenting on their local circumstances and preferences, and these should be reviewed together with this submission to gain an understanding of the range of local CA perspectives across Ontario.

Conservation Ontario represents the interests of its members and remains committed to effective partnership with the Province to achieve effective, modernized outcomes for local, watershed-based conservation and resource management.

Conservation Ontario’s full written submission can be read here.