Ramara Township is looking to opt out of services provided by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority.
Earlier this week, the north-Simcoe municipality brought a resolution to the Sicmoe County council table for others to be allowed to follow suit.
A resolution passed in October at the Ramara Township council table outlined the municipality’s position on conservation authorities. The township believes they are duplicative, financially unaccountable and in conflict with citizens and private property rights.
The resolution outlined the difficulties the township has faced in challenging the levy the conservation authority “forces” on municipalities, and questions the efficiency of programs and services the conservation authority provides.
“This is something we put a lot of thought into,” Ramara Township Mayor Basil Clarke said at Wednesday's county council meeting.
“When we first joined the conservation authority, we didn’t have the expertise in-house to manage flood-plain mapping and to look after the Lake Simcoe Protection Act," Clarke said. "But since then, we do all the same services for both Lake Couchiching, Lake St. John, Lake Dalrymple and Lake Simcoe, but then we have to send it off to the conservation authority to do the exact same thing."
In 2018, Ramara Township paid $42,213 to the conservation authority.
Clarke added that the township now has the expertise on staff to deal with conservation.
“Quite frankly, most of what the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority – (probably) 95 per cent of what they’re doing – we have the staff to do it. We no longer need them to protect Lake Simcoe and to protect the watershed,” he said.
Ramara passed the resolution in October expressing a desire to participate in consultations concerning the future of conservation authorities province-wide, and requesting an exit clause be added to any new Conservation Authorities Act for any municipality that can show they can provide the same services at the municipal level. The resolution was forwarded to Minister of the Environment, Conservation, and Parks Jeff Yurek.
On Wednesday at the county level, the item was received for information.
