NDP: Ford needs to keep his hands off local conservation authorities

QUEEN’S PARK — Ontario NDP Shadow Minister for Environment, Conservation, and Parks Peter Tabuns (Toronto Danforth); and Shadow Minister for Municipal Affairs Jeff Burch (Niagara Centre) are calling on the Ford government to scrap their planned amalgamation of the province’s regional conservation authorities:

“Doug Ford and Minister McCarthy are hanging our conservation authorities out to dry,” said Tabuns. “The Conservatives are moving ahead with their senseless plan to shrink these authorities and preventing them from making their own decisions in the meantime. This decision will lead to contaminated water, costly flooding, and species loss.

“Doug Ford’s honorary degree does not make him an expert in conservation. He and the Minister have set Ontario on a destructive course; our province’s watersheds are diverse, with unique needs that can’t be met by this haphazard approach. The Ford government must empower local expert voices, and throw this ridiculous plan in the trash, where it belongs.”

“Local voices are vital to conservation efforts,” said Burch. “The people and experts who live in these communities are the ones who should be guiding their approach to conservation. Cutting them out of the equation leaves Ontario’s watersheds, and the people that depend on them, vulnerable.

“Doug Ford thinks that decisions about local conservation efforts can be made from an office in downtown Toronto, rather than in the communities that will suffer the consequences for any mistakes. The Premier needs to stop meddling with municipalities, and focus more on funding the schools, hospitals, and roads they rely on.”