Another day, another download.
At Collingwood council last week, Doug Hevenor, chief administrative officer, and Fred Dobbs, manager of stewardship services with the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA), came before council to provide an update on how the passing of Bill 108 would affect the relationship between the provincial government, the municipal government and conservation authorities county-wide.
“This is a stealth downloading of costs to municipalities,” said Hevenor.
Bill 108 (the More Homes, More Choice Act) passed third reading at Queen’s Park and received Royal Assent in June 2019, making it law in Ontario. The act makes significant changes to the planning appeals process and to development charges.
The bill also makes changes to core mandates for conservation authorities.
According to a release from AMO (Association of Municipalities of Ontario), the mandatory core services of conservation authorities will now be prescribed by regulation.
According to Bill 108, the provincial government outlined four core mandated areas of work: hazard work for flooding, conservation land management, source water protection work and other outlined responsibilities, for example the Lake Simcoe Act. Regulations have not yet been written for the four core work areas.
Conservation authorities must also now enter into agreements with individual municipal governments on service delivery.
Some aspects of conservancy that were conspicuously missing from the new core mandates were stewardship, forestry work and education.
“Those were not identified as core mandates,” said Hevenor at the council meeting last week. “What the government is proposing we’ll do is there will be a process of opt-in or opt-out for the funding of that when it applies the levy to those costs.”
Hevenor also listed off some of the local effects of the provincial cuts.
“We’re seeing a reduction of 50 per cent of our flood financing, for our flood monitoring programs,” said Hevenor. “In 2019, that will be a $91,000 decrease in funding.”
“We’re looking as source-water protection being completely eliminated from the funding program, which would be an additional $91,000,” he said.
The elimination of the Ontario Forest Program by the provincial government – or the 50 Million Tree Program – was given help by the federal government who pledged in June to fund the program for the next four years.
“We originally lost $250,000 in funding for that program,” said Hevenor. “We’re one of the top regeneration conservation authorities in the province. Last year, we planted 120,000 trees. The year before, we planted 250,000 trees. It’s a very key and core part to environmental management.”
“We’re looking at ways to partner with Simcoe County to develop a tree-planting program along corridors that are identified as wind-swept winter roads,” he added.
Hevenor said the NVCA has also seen their contract worker budget slashed.
“We’ve taken a hit for summer students -- $15,000 for that,” he said.
Collingwood is one of the 18 municipalities the NVCA works with. Under the new legislation, conservation authorities will now be communicating through memorandums of understanding.
“Right now, we have 13 memorandums of understanding with our municipal partners. Some partners are leery going into... agreements with us, but that’s something the government is really pushing,” said Hevenor.
Collingwood is one of the 13 municipalities with a memorandum of understanding.
Coun. Yvonne Hamlin asked Hevenor if the proposed decrease in funding from the province would result in some of the NVCA’s mandates being taken away from the conservation authorities.
“When we come forward with a budget under the new mandate, you’ll be weighing those decisions. Is the work we’re doing valuable enough to your community for you to financially support it, or is it not?” said Hevenor. “We’ll make a business case for that (to help you) make a clear and concise decision.”
Overall, Hevenor said the key moving forward will be better communication all around.
“Moving forward, we’re looking to communicate better, to have greater dialogue. We’ll probably work differently with our planning colleagues in the future, hopefully in a more close-knit community style,” he said.
“There are changes coming. Until the regulations are written, we don’t know what’s going to go.”
