Conservation is key

Dear Editor:

RE: Conservation authority cuts not acceptable, May 16.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” an old adage my grandfather preached, would certainly apply to the Ford government’s recent update/attack on the Conservation Authorities Act.

We commend Deborah Martin-Downs, CAO of Credit Valley Conservation, for raising an alert at proposed changes which remove any reference to the critical importance of watershed protection from the Act’s core mandate. While this omission may provide a short-term advantage to the development industry, the long-term costs of this omission could well be staggering.

Established by a Progressive Conservative government in 1946, Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities are public, non-profit agencies, whose primary mission is to protect water quality and ensure effective watershed management. The critical importance of the conservation authorities’ work intensified following the devastation and loss of life from Hurricane Hazel in 1954.

Since 2006, the Walkerton tainted water tragedy and Justice O’Conner’s subsequent public inquiry gave rise to the Clean Water Act and the establishment of Source Water Protection Areas based on existing conservation authorities’ watershed boundaries. The effectiveness of the Source Water Protection Program was highlighted in the latest Ontario Environmental Commissioner’s Report.

This Ford government’s omission/removal of watershed protection from the conservation authorities’ mandate ignores the solid evidence that the authorities’ approach to watershed management significantly reduces flood damage.

In a landmark study Douglas Brown and colleagues reported a ten-fold decrease in flood damage in Ontario where conservation authorities use a watershed-based approach to watershed management, as compared to Michigan which did not restrict floodplain development.

Specifically, flooding in Michigan in the rainy fall of 1986 caused $5 million of damage, while  there was less than $500,000 of damage in Ontario, even though Ontario received higher flood yields. This difference in flood damage between jurisdictions highlights the huge value of Ontario conservations authorities’ watershed management approach, especially in large-scale flood events.

Another adage my grandfather favoured was, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” We do hope there’s not a lot of glass in any future Ontario developments on floodplain lands.

Dave Rodgers, Puslinch

and Ralph Martin, Guelph