What Happens to Watershed-Based Conservation When Local Responsibility Is Lost?

Consolidating 36 conservation authorities into nine regional organizations risks weakening the local partnerships and shared responsibilities at the heart of Ontario’s conservation authority system.

Ontario is moving ahead with a major restructuring of its conservation authorities. Under amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act, 36 existing authorities will be consolidated into nine Regional Conservation Authorities (Regional CAs), effective February 1, 2027.

The latest regulatory proposal, ERO 026-1067, outlines additional changes to implement this framework, including funding arrangements, municipal cost allocation, development permitting and the creation of a new provincial oversight agency.

But what happens to watershed-based conservation when the municipalities that once worked together to protect their shared watersheds are reorganized into much larger regional institutions?

A system built on working together

Established in 1946, Ontario’s conservation authority system was founded on three principles: watershed-based management, local initiative and municipal-provincial partnership.

Municipalities sharing a watershed voluntarily came together to establish conservation authorities and collectively manage their shared natural resources. The underlying principle was simple: rivers, wetlands and flooding do not recognize municipal boundaries.

Over decades, conservation authorities gained expanded powers to acquire land, regulate development in hazardous areas and undertake flood-control projects and manage important natural areas, often with local municipal support.

This model created a direct relationship between municipalities and the watersheds they occupied, requiring them to work together and share responsibility for their protection.

What happens to local accountability?

The new Regional CAs will combine existing conservation authority boundaries, bringing multiple watersheds under single regional administrations. Some watershed-specific technical standards are intended to remain, but how individual watershed management will be coordinated across these much larger organizations remains unclear.

The restructuring also changes municipal involvement. Representation on Regional CA boards will be based on participating municipalities, with a population-based allocation system. Lower-tier municipalities in counties will no longer have the same direct participating-municipality status.

Municipalities will continue to contribute financially, but responsibility for managing conservation authority lands and programs will shift to the Regional CAs.

What happens to conservation lands originally acquired, gifted or supported by local municipalities? Will those municipalities retain meaningful influence over their management? Could competing municipal interests put the future of these lands at odds?

Consider flooding: when development or drainage decisions in one municipality increase flood risks downstream, who resolves the dispute? The original system brought municipalities together to address precisely these shared problems.

The province proposes watershed councils to provide local input, but their powers and influence remain to be established.

And who sets the priorities?

The new Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency (OPCA) will oversee the governance and operations of the nine Regional CAs, with its costs recovered from those authorities and ultimately supported through municipal contributions.

Yet the proposal provides little clarity about OPCA’s day-to-day authority or what it delivers in return for its funding.

Who ultimately determines the priorities of an individual watershed: local municipalities, the Regional CA, watershed councils or the provincial agency?

Ontario’s original conservation authority system recognized that protecting natural resources requires municipalities to cooperate across political boundaries and accept shared responsibility.

A watershed is not an administrative boundary. It is a living, interconnected system. Consolidation may simplify administration, but it must not come at the expense of local accountability and the cooperation needed to protect entire watersheds.

The consultation on ERO 026-1067 is open until December 6, 2026. Earthroots encourages the public to examine the proposal and ask how local watershed accountability and environmental protection will be maintained.