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<p>Hi GRENers,</p>
<p>My column this week, copied and pasted. But please get a
subscription to the Record if you can afford it. Keep local
journalism alive. <br>
</p>
<p>Susan K<br>
</p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.therecord.com/opinion/2020/11/25/provincial-conservatives-playing-risky-game-with-our-conservation-authorities.html">https://www.therecord.com/opinion/2020/11/25/provincial-conservatives-playing-risky-game-with-our-conservation-authorities.html</a></p>
<h1 class="c-article-headline__heading
c-article-headline__heading--long">Provincial Conservatives
playing risky game with our conservation authorities</h1>
<div class="article__byline__font c-article-header__byline
article__byline-container-author-withphoto"
data-lpos="article|author">
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<div class="c-author-badge article-byline__author-badge
c-author-badge--no-img"><span class="c-author-badge__initials">SK</span></div>
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<div class="article__byline"><span class="article__author-by">By </span><span
class="article__author"><span class="article__author-name
article__author-name--nolink">Susan Koswan</span><span
class="article__author-credit">Special to Waterloo Region
Record</span></span>
<div class="article__time-container"><span class=""><span
class="article__published-date">Wed., Nov. 25, 2020</span></span><span
class="published-date-border"></span><span
class="article__readtime"><i class="material-icons
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role="img" aria-hidden="true">timer</i><span>3 min. read</span></span></div>
<div class="article__updated-container"><i class="material-icons
c-material-icon c-material-icon--article-last-modified"
role="img" aria-hidden="true">update</i><span
class="article__updated-time">Article was updated 2 hrs ago
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<p class="text-block-container">American linguist Noam Chomsky
warned that the standard technique of privatization is to
“defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry; you
hand it over to private capital.” </p>
<p class="text-block-container">So, with conservative
governments’ penchant for privatization, how worried should we
be about our conservation authorities? </p>
<p class="text-block-container"><strong>Defund:</strong>
Provincial funding for conservation authorities plummeted from
$50 million in the mid-’90s to an all-time low of $3.58
million today, downloading funding to municipalities and
program fees.</p>
<p class="text-block-container"><strong>Make sure things don’t
work:</strong> Schedule 6, buried deep within the 260 pages
of Ontario’s 2021 Budget <a class="text-block__link"
href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-1/bill-229">Bill
229</a>, proposes changes that would undermine the important
work of conservation authorities. Tim Gray, executive director
of Environmental Defence, did not mince words: Schedule 6 was
“written by the development industry.”</p>
<p class="text-block-container"><strong>People are angry: </strong>But
this is not going down without a fight.</p>
<p class="text-block-container">Conservation authorities are
unique to Ontario. Their mandate is to “undertake
watershed-based programs to protect people and property from
flooding and other natural hazards, and to conserve natural
resources for economic, social and environmental benefits.” </p>
<p class="text-block-container">Our conservation authorities do
this well — the Grand River Conservation Authority received
international recognition for management of the Grand River
watershed. </p>
<p class="text-block-container">Schedule 6 in Bill 229 would
fragment the watershed approach needed for good land-use
planning. As well, the conservation authorities’ science-based
authority for reviewing and approving development permits
could be bypassed by direct requests to the Minister of
Municipal Affairs and Housing or the local planning tribunal.</p>
<span style="display:block" id="contentMiddleBreakPoint"></span>
<p class="text-block-container">We would lose valuable,
non-political expertise and knowledge on conservation
authority boards, since all board members would have to be
municipal councillors. Municipal interests would supersede
watershed protection. The reality is that watersheds are not
confined to political borders; we all live upstream and
downstream from others.</p>
<p class="text-block-container">Schedule 6 would also not cut
red tape. In a <a class="text-block__link"
href="https://cela.ca/we-need-our-conservation-authorities-webinar/">webinar</a>
co-hosted by the Canadian Environmental Law Association,
Environmental Defence and Ontario Nature, Deborah
Martin-Downs, the chief administration officer of Credit
Valley Conservation, outlined the current permit
application-to-approval process. She shared that 92 per cent
of permit applications were approved by conservation
authorities in 2018. That doesn’t sound like a system that’s
broken.</p>
<p class="text-block-container">If this bill passes and
conservation authorities are sidestepped in the permit
process, who would then take responsibility for permit
compliance and liability for bad decisions? What criteria
would the ministry use to make data-based decisions?</p>
<p class="text-block-container">There is no doubt that
regulations can be at odds with landowners, but they have to
be; we cannot build or develop whatever we want wherever we
want. Conservation authorities were created to keep people and
property safe. Our population has increased substantially
since they were established and so has our impact. The climate
crisis has added an extra level of hazard from flooding that
requires expert management of our water courses, slopes, flood
plains, wetlands, and buffer zones.</p>
<p class="text-block-container">We do not want to see a return
to the days before conservation authorities were created in
the mid-1940s in Ontario. Bad land-use management then led to
deforestation, erosion and drought. How well we manage our
land impacts directly on water quality and quantity.</p>
<p class="text-block-container">This government’s dismantling of
environmental protection is not going unnoticed by the auditor
general of Ontario. The recently released <a
class="text-block__link"
href="https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/annualreports/arbyyear/ar2020.html">2020
Annual Report</a> is highly critical of the Environment
Ministry, Natural Resources Ministry, and Municipal Affairs
Ministry, and Technical Standards and Safety Authority,
particularly, “the consistent and significant level of
noncompliance with the Environmental Bill of Rights Act by the
Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.”</p>
<p class="text-block-container">The auditor goes on to say,
“Biodiversity loss has been ranked as a top-five risk — by
likelihood and impact — to economies over the next decade.
Unlike other provinces, Ontario does not have a long-term plan
or target to expand its network of protected areas.” On the
contrary, if this government has its way, we also have to
worry about Schedule 8 in this budget bill that would exempt
logging from certain provisions in the Endangered Species Act.</p>
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<h3 class="title">Give the gift of trusted news.</h3>
<div class="text">
<p>If you refuse to settle for second hand news and think
that your loved ones shouldn’t either, give them the gift
of The Record.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<p class="text-block-container">The short-term thinking of this
government is going to cause us all long-term pain.</p>
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<p class="text-block-container">Our members of provincial parliament
need to hear from us. This government’s actions are not in line
with the public good. Contact your MPP and share your concerns.
Environmental Defence has made that easy for us through its <a
class="text-block__link"
href="https://environmentaldefence.ca/newmode/conservation-authorities-need-help/">website</a>.</p>
<div class="author-endnote-container border-bottom"
data-lpos="article|author|bottom">
<div>Susan Koswan is a University of Waterloo graduate with a
sustainable business management certificate from Conestoga
College.</div>
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