The Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) has approved its 2026 draft budget.
The board says total municipal funding is consistent with 2025 levels.
The document includes $13.9 million in spending, with $6 million in federal funding, $347,000 from provincial sources and $759,000 from reserves.
Molly Allaire, chair of the ERCA Board of Directors and Amherstburg councillor, said the budget was approved with a zero per cent increase.
"Which is really important because right now we're in times where all municipalities are struggling just to keep all service levels going, but, thanks to careful budgeting by our amazing ERCA staff, and to use some reserve funding, we have a surplus this year so there's no cuts to any service level," she said.
Allaire said some of the project highlights include updating flood hazard mapping, watershed protections, restoration of Hillman Marsh, and management planning for the new Collavino Conservation area and CASO Greenway.
"We're going to have more than 50,000 trees that will be planted, 70 acres of habitat were restored last year, and we're also going to be sampling water courses throughout the region, measuring watershed health and collect data for Kingsville-Leamington nutrient research study," said Allaire.
In October, the Ontario government announced it would establish the Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency (OPCA), a new provincial oversight body to provide centralized governance, set performance standards, and manage the transition to a regional watershed-based framework which will consolidate 36 Conservation Authorities into 7 regional Authorities.
Allaire said the budget was prepared in advanced of any changes announced by province and added that she did not know how the changes would affect ERCA locally moving forward.
"I think we know that I've been advocating that I'm very nervous about this Bill 68 and the growth of the size of our conservation authority. I think that we were able to do this at such a low percentage because we were capable of keeping an eye on absolutely everything," she said.
Allaire said a rally to save ERCA is planned for Friday Dec. 19 in front of Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie's office from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.