The Grey Sauble Conservation Authority is exempting the Bruce Trail Conservancy from paying any fees for its projects on authority lands.
The authority’s board of directors unanimously voted to exempt the Conservancy from all fees at its board of directors meeting on August 28.
Currently, authority staff have permission to exempt permit and planning fees for a maximum of three Conservancy projects per year. Any requests beyond three must come directly to the board for approval, or are paid by the Conservancy to move the project ahead.
Authority staffer Olivia Sroka said tracking the number of fee exemptions granted to the Conservancy each year is not a good use of time and brought a report to the board requesting that all fees for such projects automatically receive exemptions.
“The time and effort required to track these applications and the fee exemptions is an insufficient use of time,” Sroka said. “Staff are of the opinion that the benefit the Conservancy provides to Grey Sauble as an organization far outweighs the financial gain that we are gaining with this relatively low volume of applications.”
The Bruce Trail Conservancy is one of the largest land trusts in Ontario and are stewards of the hugely popular Bruce Trail. It is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization.
Sroka said the Bruce Trail intersects with a number of properties owned by the conservation authority and Conservancy members often volunteer their time to improve access to the Bruce Trail through a number of projects including: adding boardwalks, foot bridges and parking areas.
She said most permit applications from the Conservancy are minor in nature and the authority, on average, receives about six per year for various projects.
The Conservancy manages and maintains local trail networks, improves trail infrastructure, draws visitors to authority properties, which leads to increased revenue through parking feeds and offers valuable expertise and insights to the authority.
“The Conservancy provides a significant benefit to Grey Sauble and is a very valuable partnership to have and maintain a relationship with in navigating our mutual goals in conservation,” said Sroka.
Members of the board of directors gave the thumbs up to the staff request.
“To me, this seems like an excellent economic driver,” said Alex Maxwell, from The Blue Mountains. “I’m very supportive of this.”
