The Maitland Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) presented its 2018 budget, including a $58,000 increase, to Wellington North council on March 12.
A portion of Wellington North, Minto and Mapleton are within the Maitland Valley watershed.
Vice-chair David Turton, who represents the three municipalities on the MVCA board, and general manager Phil Beard presented the $2.1-million operating budget and $1.2-million project budget.
“The board is working to try to stabilize our operating budget, while keeping levy increases to no more than $58,000 a year over the next three years,” Turton said.
The $1.4-million general levy includes the following contributions from local municipalities:
– Mapleton: $12,063, an increase of $857 over 2017;
– Minto: $98,784, an increase of $4,272 over 2017; and
– Wellington North: $39,263, an increase of $2,093 over 2017.
One project includes the Harriston Hydrology project. After being flooded during a June 2017 rainfall event, Harriston and Drayton suffered a significant amount of damage. The project will develop new floodplain mapping for the Harriston area, which lies within the Maitland Valley watershed.
“We can better understand how the runoff works upstream of Harriston and work with them on the public information meeting to talk about what happened and … steps for moving forward as well,” said Beard. He added the June 2017 flooding event also washed out parts of the Gorrie dam, adding to the list of infrastructure challenges the MVCA is facing.
Council thanked Beard and Turton for the presentation.
