Bruce County council is directing staff to submit feedback in opposition of the province’s current move to amalgamate conservation authorities.
The Province of Ontario is looking to combine community conservation authorities to have a wider coverage area, but council said that it would cause smaller communities to not have their input heard on a provincial level.
The Ontario government is looking to group together Grey and Bruce Counties with York Region, Simcoe County, Barrie, Lambton, Huron, Perth, Wellington, Middlesex, Dufferin counties, and include partial coverage of Durham Region, Peel Region, Kawartha Lakes, and Orillia.
From there, each municipality or county involved would be appointed representatives by population.
This would mean that York, and Simcoe each get three representatives, with Barrie, Grey, and Lambton counties with two apiece.
The remaining 10 regions covered each get one appointment each on a board of an estimated 22 members.
Councillor Chris Peabody shared his dissatisfaction with the proposed appointment allotment, particularly with the areas that would each only have one representative.
“Those [other] appointments have an extremely small number of square kilometres compared to Bruce County,” he said during Thursday’s council meeting. “This appointment system is absolutely unacceptable, and there’s now way we can accept this. It’s a total misrepresentation of what our two watersheds are.”
Deputy Warden Don Murray agreed, adding that there should be representation not only based on population, but geographical area as well.
“We’re going to be left out in the cold, is what I believe. I’m not sure how to get them to change their mind on these appointments, but we need more representation along the Lake Huron shoreline,” said Murray.
The report within the council agenda included a letter written by Warden Luke Charbonneau, which was addressed to the the Province’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.
“The fundamental problem is here is that when you get mixed in with Simcoe County, and Barrie, and all these places with huge populations, then your voice gets diminished. And it will probably get diminished in the end,” said Charbonneau to council. “There are not very many ways to structure representation in a board like a conservation authority. Population is one way to do it and that’s probably how it’s going to be done. And with these big urban centres, we’re going to be a small voice.”