Press Conference Coalition Calls for Government to Halt of Consolidation of Conservation Authorities

Broad Coalition of Civil Society Organizations Calls for a Halt to the Consolidation of Ontario’s Conservation Authorities Queen's Park Press Conference: March 25, 2026. Corrections: During the media briefing, we referenced $3.8 billion in flood infrastructure managed by Conservation Authorities and it sounds like this was in 2009 dollars. This valuation is based on 2019 dollars. Secondly, the regulation for the land inventory was in 2024, not 2025. In anticipation of the introduction of legislative changes to enable the sweeping and ill-conceived consolidation of Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities into nine, a broad coalition of civil society groups, individuals and a local elected official are calling on the Government of Ontario to halt this plan and listen to experts and local voices to re-empower the Conservation Authorities. To date, the Government of Ontario has provided no evidence or business case to justify its planned consolidation of the Conservation Authorities. This proposed consolidation limits local decision-making, ignores science-based watershed knowledge, puts our communities at greater risk of flooding and water quality issues, undermines source water protection for our drinking water and dismisses concerns from a broad spectrum of organizations and thousands of residents of Ontario. "M-260325-Wed-1300_Watershed-Conservation"