Feedback and input from the public is being encouraged by one local conservation authority on a potential regional amalgamation established by the province.
Quinte Conservation is seeking resident input on the recently passed Bill 68, ‘Plan to Protect Ontario Act’, which will establish a new provincial agency to oversee the activities of conservation authorities and will have the power to direct regional strategic planning, and financial & operational matters.
The new agency aims to consolidate Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities into seven regional conservation authorities.
Quinte Conservation, along with six other CAs are proposed to form the Eastern Lake Ontario Regional Conservation Authority, an area covering 48 municipalities and 16,000 km2, stretching from Whitby to Napanee, north to the Kawarthas and south to Prince Edward County.
The eighteen municipalities that sit on QC’s Board of Directors would fund the new RCA and assist with future funding of the new provincial agency.
QC stated no further details have been provided as to how local municipalities would retain meaningful oversight or control increases to municipal levies.
Currently, municipalities fund 51-per cent of QC’s annual operating budget compared to a provincial contribution of 13-per cent.
Since 2021, over $1.54 million dollars of local, municipal funds have been invested into sixteen of the forty dams owned by QC. Additionally, another $1.2 million in grants was secured to help implement those capital works.
Under the consolidation, the province is proposing that all of QC’s assets and liabilities will be the responsibility of the RCA.
It is not known at this time how prior commitments between municipalities, donors, organizations, and the authority will be affected.
“We encourage watershed municipalities and all residents to express concerns and/or provide comments prior to December 22, 2025”, says Don Kuntze, Chair of the Board of Directors.
“Given the current details provided so far, we can’t say how exactly our communities will be affected. Our fear is that turning a 6,000 km2 watershed region into a 16,000 km2 region will come with growing pains that ultimately affect you. So, I ask for your participation. We all need Mother Nature and the water she provide.”
