Essex to voice concerns regarding Province’s intention to merge conservation authorities

By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press

Essex Council directed its administration to prepare and send a letter to the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) at the December 1 meeting to express the Town’s support for its Board of Directors’ position regarding the Province proposing Conservation Authority (CA) consolidation.

Recently, ERCA’s Board raised concerns about how these changes could impact local accountability and service delivery.

The letter will be circulated to ERCA’s member municipalities, to the submission window to the Province for comments on the matter, and to local MPPs.

Councillor Jason Matyi, one of Essex’s representatives on the ERCA Board, raised the resolution at the November 17 meeting, and Essex Council supported it at the December 1 meeting.

This is in response to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks (MECP) announcing its intent to combine conservation authorities in the province, from 36 – largely in broader Southwestern Ontario – to seven regional entities under Bill 68, Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2025.

This would combine the Essex region with other Conservation Authorities up to the north of Guelph as part of what is being referred to as the Lake Erie Regional Conservation Authority (LERCA). It would be comprised of 81 municipalities. It is not known what the Board governance for this amalgamated CA would be.

At the previous meeting, Council also supported Matyi’s motion to ask ERCA CAO Tim Bryne to speak of the changes at an Essex Council meeting. He did so on Monday.

They are “rather sweeping changes being pushed forward by the Province,” Bryne told Essex Council of Bill 68, noting ERCA found out about it on a Friday morning three-weeks ago without any consultation.

“It caught us somewhat by surprise, but we weren’t shocked.”

ERCA has advised the Province if there is a need for change, “we need to understand why there is a need to change,” Byrne told Essex Council. “We need to understand what the problem actually is that we are trying to solve, and destruction does not actually push forward to success.”

CAs operate on the principles of integrated watershed management, James Bryant, Director of Watershed Management Services for ERCA, explained. That is done through its municipal partners. Once established, a Board of Directors is created of appointed Councillors. Its administration enacts the vision of the Board in compliance with legislation.

The proposed amalgamation of CAs is one silo of Bill 68, which is a budget measures Bill that is an enabling piece of legislation establishing a provincial oversight agency, the Ontario Conservation Agency, Bryant explained.

If passed, that agency will oversee the proposed amalgamation, deciding on boundaries, the transition, governance, strategic vision, performance, and funding of the conservation authorities. It will have five to 12 appointed Board Members by the Lieutenant Governor and Council. There would be an appointed CEO and agency staff.

Below that will be the seven proposed conservation authorities.

Bryant said the Essex Region will compete with those other municipalities proposed for the LERCA Board in terms of prioritization of local projects, some of which have major population centres.

As Bill 68 has been given Royal Assent on November 27, the expectation is that there will be a CEO appointed to the provincial agency, in addition to the Board members, Bryant said. Then staff will be brought on board and oversee the transition from 36 to the proposed seven CAs.

He noted, as far as ERCA knows, the timeline to finalize CA boundaries is in the spring, transitioning into the regional CAs into 2027.

“Every time I try to look at this through a different lens, I can’t find a good reason to amalgamate all of these Conservation Authorities,” Councillor Matyi said, pointing out of the 81 proposed for LERCA, 12 are large cities. “Having Essex’s voice ring out through that I think is going to get… cluttered.”

He fears it will remove local Councillors from being on the CA Board.

In answering Councillor Katie McGuire-Blais’s question, who is Essex’s other rep on ERCA’s Board, if building permits required through ERCA would be put to the next tier and not handled locally anymore, Byrne said they “do not have a clue.

“The one thing we do know is the jurisdiction extends from the Detroit River 300kms to the north-east; watershed principle be damned, that goes out the door. Local accountability, that goes out the door,” Byrne said.

“We have a flooding issue in Essex County…to potentially say we won’t have a board or…an authority in our own backyard who is going to protect our watershed and protect us from flooding is really scary to think about,” McGuire-Blais added, encouraging all municipalities and developers, as she believes they may have to wait a long time to get permits, to write the local MPPs and Premier Ford to express they are unhappy with the proposed changes.

Councillor Kim Verbeek wondered if there was an opportunity for ERCA and other municipalities outside the region, perhaps up to 100kms instead of the proposed 300km, to come up with a plan to work as a larger body. Perhaps a case can be made to the Province to consider that an option instead.

Bryant said the Province is looking for feedback and wants to see those types of suggestions. Byrne added there has been limited dialogue on that.

These things should be determined by electorates, he said.

Amalgamation does not necessarily mean cost-savings, Mayor Sherry Bondy added. It can lead to the degradation of local autonomy and governance and accountability.

“I think Essex County is so unique. If they want to amalgamate boards in Toronto for their own reasons, so be it,” Bondy said. “But we are so unique here in Essex County that we really need to be our own, in my opinion.”

She will be optimistic the Province will receive the feedback and “give Essex County the autonomy that it deserves from a natural heritage, flooding, and regulation point of view.”

ERCA’s 2026 Budget

In terms of the 2026 Budget, Byrne announced the original request of a 2.5%-2.8% increase would be put on hold and would move forward with zero-based budgeting, thanks to what he said was sound fiscal management and knowing of the economic climate. That will. However,be based on a split of local municipalities’ CBAs. The Town of Essex’s CBA jumped up by .3%, which he said is something.

The budgeted amount to Essex last year was $165,953. The 2026 allocation, including mandatory and non-mandatory, will be $166,916.

Essex CAO Kate Giurissevich appreciated the information, noting Essex built in a 5% increase into its 2026 Budget for which Council will start deliberations on Monday, December 8. That is around $8,000 in savings that can be adjusted into Essex’s Budget, she explained.