Lambton County councillors are appealing to the province to press pause on amalgamation plans for conservation authorities.
During Wednesday's Lambton County Council meeting, a motion brought forward by Dawn-Euphemia Mayor Alan Broad to reach out to the Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks and the premier, passed.
"Their promise was that it was going to unite all the rules and regulations across all the CAs (conservation authorities), it was going to speed up approvals, the municipalities are still going to be well represented and they're going to save money at the same time with this," said Broad. "Well, I think most of us sitting around this table have been involved with amalgamations and to acquire all four of those is going to be very, very, very difficult."
Earlier this month, the provincial government announced plans to consolidate Ontario's 36 conservation authorities into seven regional agencies to form the Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency (OPCA).
Under the province’s proposal, the nearby conservation authorities would be placed as follows:
The Lake Erie Regional Conservation Authority would include Upper Thames and Grand River along with Long Point, Catfish, Kettle Creek, Lower Thames, and St. Clair.
The Huron-Superior Regional Conservation Authority would include Maitland Valley, Ausable Bayfield, Saugeen, and Grey Sauble along with Nottawasaga Valley and Lake Simcoe.
If implemented, the provincial government said consolidation would happen in phases.
Broad said a recent call in session with the province didn't exactly ease any concerns about the proposed changes.
"It lasted a whole 30 minutes and then they had a 30 minute question and answer period which they didn't answer a lot of questions," he said.
The government plans to introduce legislation to establish the OPCA in the near future.
