ABERFOYLE – On Jan. 23, Conservation Halton CAO Hassaan Basit explained that he’d been on a bit of a road show bringing information to various councils.
Founded in 1956, Conservation Halton encompasses roughly 1,000 square kilometres, with roughly 612,000 people living in the watershed.
Of that, the conservation authority owns 9,650 acres and has a permanent staff of 120 supplemented by a seasonal staff of 800 – many of those working at Glen Eden.
Basit noted land owned by the conservation authority serves as conservation areas, parks or areas to enhance critical aspects of the watershed such as flood reservoirs and dams.
Basit said two years ago Conservation Halton launched a strategic plan to create a deliberate attempt to transform the conservation authority to take it from focusing on programs – to focusing on the customer.
“That forms the basis of our strategy,” Basit said.
“Our land use has changed quite a bit in the past decades … and will continue to change.”
In showing maps of the watershed, he provided a comparison of aerial views of the landscape in 1984 and 2016.
“The surprise is not that there is a fair amount of growth, but the enhancements have resulted in the 16-mile valley being healthier than it was is 1984,” he said.
“It’s one of outcomes of what a conservation authority does.
“It allows municipalities to meet their growth and development targets in a way which also protects the vital natural systems.”
Basit also spoke to the creation of a small lake near Milton – the Kelso Quarry.
After extensive work, the former working quarry is now the latest feature in the authority’s parks system.
“It’s been quite a transformation,” Basit said. “We are on the verge of opening this up to the public, with its beautiful lake and thriving ecosystem.”
Highlighting aspects of the 2019 budget, Basit said that within the strategic plan one of the first targets was to look at Conservation Halton’s ability to generate sustainable funding and limit increases to municipal tax levies.
“We want to structure the organization to have as small impact on taxpayers as possible,” he said.
At the same time, the organization is mandated by the province to provide certain services.
He noted that 87 per cent of the authority’s budget is paid by Halton Region – which is also driving the need for services due to growth and development.
“We’ve looked at our assets and how that infrastructure and services can be maintained and what money should be set aside,” Basit said.
He added the authority is projecting operating budget increases well below the rate of inflation.
The infrastructure includes dams and 12 kilometres of flood channels.
“They require a lot of work and are expensive to maintain,” Basit said.
“The dams and channels are more critical today than when they were first constructed because there are more people living there because of intensification.”
In addition, Basit said there is the effect of climate change, which exacerbates the need for this type of infrastructure.
The 2019 proposed budget is $34,679,631 of which $9,977,998 is funded through the municipal levy.
He stated that unlike many conservation authorities, the majority of revenue is self generated (59%) rather than municipal funds (32%).
For Puslinch, which represents 0.22% of the watershed, this represents a levy increase of 3.9% or an increase from $21,340 to $22,170.
Basit said the province now provides less than 1% of the funding for the conservation authority.
The 2019 priorities include: service delivery, dealing with the impact of the Emerald ash borer, maintaining dams and channels, floodplain mapping, facility infrastructure and digital infrastructure.
He said public safety remains the top priority of the conservation authority.
He noted one of the main roles is flood forecasting and warning.
“That cannot happen if you don’t have a network to determine the impact of that rain,” Basit said.
“CA’s were given that role after Hurricane Hazel. They are slow, cover a large area and are relatively predictable.”
Today’s weather includes more intense microstorms “which sneak their way through our gages and we were completely blind sided as to what was going on,” he said.
“Because of that climate change we do need a network with broader coverage in real time.”
With that information, the conservation authorities can issue warnings that can maximize the amount of time emergency services have to respond.
“And they are more accurate forecasts,” he said.
As to the economic impact of the parks “in 2018 we logged in 1.8 million visitors,” Basit said.
“In perspective, the CN Tower gets 1.5 million.”
He noted the number of ski and snowboard rentals makes Glen Eden the third biggest ski operation in the province – operating out of a 20-year-old prefabricated building which was intended to last five years.
He added, “we’ve squeezing as much efficiency and customer-value from our assets as we can.
“Nothing on the parks side is tax-supported.”
He noted challenges as a result of increased population.
“We are not at a stage (where) we have to start thinking about negative strategies to keep people from coming to our parks,” Basit said. I hope we never get there.”
He said the population within Halton is expected to double.
“Does that mean Halton residents will face less access to green space,” he said. “I don’t think that is right either.”
Solutions might include increasing the amount of green space owned by the Conservation Authority or upgrading its facilities.
