The Government has announced the next steps in its overhaul of Ontario’s conservation authority system, amending its proposal to consolidate the 36 conservation authorities into nine regional authorities.
Under the plan, the newly created Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency (OPCA) will coordinate the transition, aiming for consolidation in early 2027. According to the government, programs and services delivered by conservation authorities, such as watershed management, natural hazard management, and source water protection, will remain the same.
Conservation authorities will continue to be municipally governed, but there will be changes. Participating municipalities responsible for appointing members and paying levies will be upper and single-tier municipalities. Lower-tier municipalities will no longer be participating municipalities.
Rules for how members are to be selected will be set out in regulation based on each participating municipality’s percentage of the population in the regional conservation authority’s jurisdiction. Each participating municipality will be required to appoint at least one member. It is anticipated that the number of members appointed to each board would be 15-20, but rules for the number of members may be set out in regulation. These rules could include capping the total number of members on a conservation authority’s board and potentially limiting any one municipality’s number of members. At this time, the government’s proposal lacks detail about how conservation authority participation will roll out for northern municipalities without an upper-tier structure.
The Province will require regional conservation authorities to create one or more local watershed councils to help identify local priorities for watershed-based conservation programs and services. Specific requirements for membership composition may be set out in regulation.
As an Association, we remain concerned about the impacts of this initiative on local decision-making. We will continue to monitor the rollout, especially for impacts on municipal financial, operational, and administrative burden.