ERCA Board expresses concerns over Provincial plan to consolidate conservation authorities

Essex - At its Board meeting on November 13, the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) discussed the Province’s proposal to consolidate Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities into seven regional entities under Bill 68, Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2025. The plan, announced by Environment Minister Todd McCarthy on October 31, includes creating an Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency to oversee the amalgamation and consult on proposed boundaries.

While ERCA supports the Province’s goals of improving efficiency and consistency, Board members raised concerns about how these changes could impact local accountability and service delivery. The Essex region faces unique watershed challenges, including prairie-like topography, coastal erosion, and flood-prone areas surrounded by water on three sides, requiring tailored solutions informed by local expertise.

“Under the proposed model, decisions affecting our communities will be made by a board representing up to 80 municipalities, diluting accountability and transparency,” said ERCA Chair Molly Allaire. “Local knowledge is not just valuable, it’s essential. Our local community faces unique environmental challenges that cannot be addressed with a one-size-fits-all approach. We want to work with the Province to ensure any changes maintain strong local representation and effective watershed management.”

 Board members also expressed concerns about potential delays for development and agriculture. “Builders and farmers rely on timely, locally informed permitting,” said Tim Byrne, CAO. “Centralizing these functions could create bottlenecks rather than efficiencies. Local developers value direct access to ERCA staff who have been instrumental in finding creative solutions to complex challenges. Planners and engineers also depend on being able to discuss designs with local experts — not teams located up to three hours away.”

Questions were also raised about how local expert knowledge be accessed throughout all phases of emergency management when dealing with flooding disasters – like those that have been experienced far too often in the local watershed region.

Following significant discussion regarding this proposal, the Board unanimously passed resolution 90/25, which states:

WHEREAS the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks has posted Environmental Registry Notice No. 025-1257 (“Proposed Boundaries for the Regional Consolidation of Ontario’s Conservation Authorities”), proposing to reduce Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities to 7 regional entities as part of a broader restructuring that would create a new Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency to provide centralized oversight and direction under the Conservation Authorities Act; and 

WHEREAS under this proposal, the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) would be merged into a new “Lake Erie Regional Conservation Authority” together with the: 

• Lower Thames Valley CA  

• St. Clair Region CA  

• Upper Thames River CA  

• Kettle Creek CA  

• Catfish Creek CA  

• Long Point Region CA  

• Grand River CA 

forming a single organization stretching from Windsor, Essex County and Pelee Island, through north of Waterloo region; and 

WHEREAS the Board acknowledges and supports the Province’s goals of improved efficiency, consistency and fiscal prudence in conservation delivery, but finds that the proposed “Lake Erie Region” configuration would: 

• Create a geographically vast and administratively complex entity, joining northern, rural and fast-growing southern municipalities throughout the province with little shared watershed connection or economic alignment; 

• Dilute local accountability and municipal partnership, contrary to the principle that decisions are best made closest to the communities they affect; 

• Generate substantial transition costs — including human-resources integration, governance restructuring, IT migration and policy harmonization — that would divert resources from front-line service delivery and delay measurable outcomes, contrary to the Province’s own business-planning principles of value for money, cost containment and service continuity; and, 

• Risk greater uncertainty and delay for builders, developers and farmers, as local permitting offices and staff familiar with site conditions are replaced by distant regional structures, making it harder for applicants to obtain timely local advice, resolve issues or expedite housing and infrastructure approvals that support the Province’s "Get It Done" agenda; and 

  
  

WHEREAS the ERCA has already undertaken significant modernization work aligned with provincial objectives, including: 

• implementation of a digital permitting and inspection system that has reduced turnaround times; 

• improvements in transparency and client communication; 

• data and network systems, including security and redundancy 

• numerous internal reviews to identify opportunities for cost savings and efficiencies 

• conversion of redundant support and non-mandatory positions to front-line mandatory service positions 

demonstrating that meaningful modernization can occur within the current watershed-based governance framework; and 

WHEREAS the Board further recognizes that the Essex Region Conservation Authority serves Southwestern Ontario communities facing vastly different climatic, hydrological and infrastructure realities, with no single river running through the Essex region by itself defining the watershed and being surrounded on three sides by water, with topography that is prairie-like and subject to costal erosion and flood-prone areas, which would be ill-served by a larger overarching administrative structure extending over 300 kilometers to townships north of the Kitchener-Waterloo Guelph area;  

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT: 

1. The Board of Directors does not support the proposed “Lake Erie Regional Conservation Authority” boundary configuration outlined in Environmental Registry Notice 025-1257; and 

2. The Board instead endorses further provincial evaluation of a more focused specific model as a geographically coherent, cost-effective and locally accountable alternative that advances the government’s priorities of efficiency, red-tape reduction and timely housing delivery; and 

3. The Board requests that the Ministry engage directly with affected municipalities and conservation authorities across Southwestern Ontario most specifically, the Windsor-Essex and Pelee Island municipalities before finalizing any consolidation boundaries or legislative amendments; and 

4. That this resolution, with a letter from the Chair, be forwarded to the Environmental Registry of Ontario consultations and to: 

5. the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks and his Opposition critics; 

6. local Members of Provincial Parliament; 

7. local Municipal Councils 

8. the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and Conservation Ontario;  

9. local First Nations  

10. local environmental groups and other stakeholders, and 

11. all Conservation Authorities in Ontario 

 Your Voice Matters

A poll conducted by the Windsor Star asked: ‘Should local conservation planning remain local?’ 100% of respondents answered affirmatively.

The Environmental Registry of Ontario (ERO #025-1257) is open for public comment until December 22, 2025. This is your opportunity to speak up. Tell the province that conservation decisions must remain local, accountable, and responsive.

Submit your comments today at ero.ontario.ca/notice/025-1257.

Contact your local MPP to urge them to pause and keep local watershed management decisions in the hands of local decision-makers.