The general manager of Maitland Valley Conservation Authority says his organization is trying to provide the best service within its resources.
Phil Beard was at the Minto council with Minto’s representative John Cox. They were speaking about the MVCA levy for 2009.
Mayor David Anderson said council is aware of what the conservation authority does. In the past months, he said Minto appreciated the MVCA’s expertise on water access and high flooding in the Harriston area “I thank you for your support.”
But every year, there is an increase to the municipal levy.
“I know that you, like every other level of government, are only dealing with what you get your hands on in the [funding] allocation from the provincial government.”
“That’s been frozen since 1996,” said Beard.
“What kind of lobbying is being done to free that money up,” Anderson asked. He said if provincial funds are frozen, “The way I see it from our level is that it is us who have to keep anteing up to make up for the frozen levels of provincial funding.”
Beard said, “First and foremost the provincial attitude is that the conservation authorities are owned by the municipalities.”
They do not get funding in the same way as the province funds its ministries.
Beard said the Association of Conservation Authorities has been lobbying and trying to get the Association of Municipalities of Ontario to support it. He said the provincial and municipal task force is considering downloading to municipalities, and, “We are just another download. We haven’t been able to find out as a result of that agreement, what changes will be made.”
The MNR has committed to a new partnership with conservation authorities, “but we don’t know what that means yet. We certainly have been lobbying, but we need AMO beside us to make that happen. We’re just one of a number of things downloaded onto municipalities,” he said. “I know that your counterpart in Wellington North has been quite adamant about lobbying, and our association certainly has been working on that. We don’t want to undermine that by going to the ministry too often.”
He said, the conservation authority has met with local provincial politicians.
Anderson responded, “The way I see it is that as municipalities through ROMA and AMO, have a strong voices.”
He said perhaps that is the route to helping conservation authorities convince the province to provide more funding.
Beard said all members of the MVCA except for two, also serve on local councils. “We have some strong municipal people.”
He said four years ago, when the MCVA implemented a major levy increase, it was to create a five year operations stabilization plan. Even though the budget is at 1992 levels, Beard believes the MVCA was providing comparable services for 2009. The board now plans to review its five-year plan.
In the short term, it has taken the approach the province will not likely provide more funding, so the authority will try to provide the best service it can with the funds that councils make available.
“If the province comes on board now … it will almost be like an extra amount.”
Anderson said for Minto, the increase was nearly 8%.
Flood forecasting
On the issue of flooding and flood forecasting, Beard said the MVCA has an engineer with expertise going through previous reports in 1985.
The plan is to meet with Minto’s public works director and staff to pick out what costs might be today. One project might be flood control works in Harriston if that is what Minto wants to consider.
“We’d certainly be willing to look in that area.”
They are also investigating what improvements can be made to the flood monitoring and forecasting as well. “At some point in the future, we’d like to come back to council with all of this information.”
Anderson said in Minto and Harriston, “You could use us as a test site to check the rise and fall of water and global warming.”
Beard said Harriston is the most flood prone area in the watershed. “We’d certainly like to work with council to look at what options are available.”
Councillor Rick Hembly asked if the MVCA engineer would have recommendations.
Beard said the plan is to check old reports and determine what is feasible. Part of that would be considering 1985 cost estimates and translating them into 2009 dollars for comparison to see if Minto wants to proceed.
“Unfortunately, I think that with the climate trends we are seeing, the probability of flooding will likely be greater rather than lesser.”
Council supported the levy of $65,567, a jump of $5,620, and that its board member vote in favour of the increase.
Councillor David Turton asked “What would happen if we said ‘no,’ and that we’re not happy with the increase.”
Beard said the board would have to try to come up with something that would be acceptable to 50.1% of the assessment area. He noted there is a weighted vote, based on assessment percentages.
That means Minto’s vote is 7.2% and North Perth is worth 20.2%. The budget would need 50.1% to pass.
“So we’re just kind of small potatoes,” Turton said.
Beard disagreed.
“We would like 100% support. You can’t work with your owners if they don’t all support you,” he said.
