Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority’s (NVCA) chief administrative officer Doug Hevenor came before Collingwood councillors at their committee of the whole meeting on Nov. 20 to present the authority’s draft budget for 2024.
The authority is currently seeking comment from its 18 member municipalities on its proposed finances for 2024, with an eye towards passing their budget in December.
This year, Collingwood’s portion amounts to a budget request of $345,432, broken down between an operating levy of $329,624 and $15,808 for asset management. This accounts for an increase of $46,777 over what Collingwood gave the NVCA in 2023.
“From 2019 to date, we’ve had over 17,000 inputs for consultations, permitting, site visits and advice. It’s overwhelming the amount of growth that’s happening across our watershed,” said Hevenor. “We need to be able to work and communicate with our partners.”
Hevenor gave councillors a quick run down of NVCA accomplishments in 2023, including planting 78,000 trees across the watershed, phragmites removal, seeing 8,300 individuals pass through their education programs and working to streamline the development application review process.
Mid-year reporting indicates that NVCA staff have met provincial timelines for development application review 96 per cent of the time.
Hevenor told councillors that NVCA staff had originally requested a $200,000 increase to the levy, however during deliberation the board decided to increase that to $400,000 so the organization could hire two new staff for their planning and regulations department.
The municipal levy is broken down into departments within the NVCA which includes corporate services and governance (42.9 per cent of the levy), planning and regulations (21.6 per cent), lands and operations (12.4 per cent), watershed science (7.8 per cent), flood operations (7.3 per cent), environmental stewardship and restoration (five per cent), forestry (2.5 per cent) and environmental education (0.5 per cent).
Mayor Yvonne Hamlin asked about the speed of development application reviews.
“I saw there was a recommendation for more staff. These costs – can they be charged to people who have development applications in? Why should our taxpayer be paying for these?” she asked.
Hevenor said development should be paying for development.
“We’re following the guidance the province has set out for us,” he said. Hevenor also noted that user fees the NVCA charges have been under a freeze since 2022, which doesn’t have an end-date yet from the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks.
Hamlin asked town treasurer Monica Quinlan whether the town could recoup the NVCA development application processing costs through development charges.
“It’s not a DC-eligible cost,” said Quinlan. “I’m not sure if it’s even possible to include some fee to development applications. We can see if there’s a mechanism to help recover some of it.”
The town’s chief administrative officer Sonya Skinner provided a broader perspective, due to her background as a former CAO of a conservation authority.
“It’s very difficult for us to get involved in the NVCA’s fees because they’re a separate regulatory authority,” clarified Skinner. “We try to co-ordinate our decisions...but they are independent of us.”
“It’s important that they have the right expertise,” she added.
Hamlin also asked if the NVCA could provide forestry services to member municipalities for an additional fee, following a decision made earlier in the afternoon during the regular meeting of council to not hire a new town forestry co-ordinator in 2024.
“We would entertain opportunities,” said Hevenor. “We would be open to discussion.”
NVCA is a not-for-profit organization which is mandated to ensure the conservation, restoration and responsible management of Ontario’s water, land and natural habitats. The organization’s jurisdiction is approximately 3,700 square kilometres (32.6 square kilometres in Collingwood), with jurisdiction in 18 municipalities in the counties of Simcoe, Dufferin and Grey. There are 36 conservation authorities across Ontario who all work under the provincial Conservation Authorities Act.
The total 2024 draft budget for the NVCA is made up of $3,185,300 in municipal investments, and $3,259,379 in investments from other partners such as the provincial and federal governments, grants and user fees.
The town has until Nov. 24 to provide their comments on the 2024 draft budget to the NVCA.
