Windsor City Council is backing a call to have the province conduct public and stakeholder engagement when it comes to the move to consolidate conservation authorities across Ontario.
Council passed a notice of motion Monday from Ward 9 Councillor Kieran McKenzie that supports four recommendations from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) when it comes to the planned merger of conservation authorities.
The motion calls for the province to engage in greater stakeholder engagement with municipal and conservation authorities to address governance and funding challenges in the current proposal.
The recommendations from AMO ask that the province maintain local governance, fund transition costs, restore the 50-50 municipal funding partnership, and collaborate on implementing a working group to jointly develop practical solutions.
McKenzie says AMO represents 440 municipalities in Ontario, and this statement highlights several concerns we all have.
"I don't think the government has been able to provide any sufficient leadership on this issue other than destroying the conservation authorities locally as we know them through their legislation," he says. "So this is an attempt to push back and ask for the province to come up with reasonable solutions and strategies for things that they haven't fully contemplated up until this point."
McKenzie says this is the work that was supposed to have happened when the legislation was going through the proper process.
"When you're changing laws and you're changing things that are going to have a potentially significant impact on people, organizations, and just people's well-being; the good functioning of the economy; and decisions around land use, the idea of going fast just because you find the legislative process as a legislator frustrating isn't a good reason to just ram things through," he says.
McKenzie says this is an attempt to bring all of these issues forward.
"Help the government understand how they can make the best of what I think is terrible legislation and hopefully help us land in a place that doesn't introduce additional risk for flooding and all of the other areas the conservation authorities have responsibility over. Because what I think they've done now is really create a significant amount of risk for municipalities and residents going forward," he says.
At the end of October, Ontario Environment Minister Todd McCarthy announced plans to establish a new provincial agency to oversee the amalgamated conservation authorities, consolidating Ontario's 36 conservation authorities into seven regional entities, including the Essex Region Conservation Authority.
The legislation was passed before the end of 2025.
Conservation authorities are responsible for managing natural resources and protecting the environment, primarily by overseeing land use development, managing floodplains, preserving wetlands, and promoting conservation efforts within their watershed area.