The board of Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) has formally come out against the Ontario government’s proposal to merge the province’s 36 conservation authorities into just seven regional mega-agencies — a sweeping overhaul local leaders warn would undermine environmental protection, local governance, and watershed stewardship.
At its Nov. 28 meeting, the CVC board unanimously passed a resolution rejecting the consolidation outlined in Bill 68, the Plan to Protect Ontario Act. The legislation calls for the creation of a new Western Lake Ontario Regional Conservation Authority, which would absorb CVC along with Conservation Halton, the Hamilton Conservation Authority, and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority.
Board members said the proposed restructuring goes far beyond streamlining and risks erasing the strong local decision-making that has guided watershed protection for decades. A CVC staff report warns the merger would introduce “significant changes to governance, service delivery, financial structures, land management and municipal oversight,” shifting authority away from municipalities and concentrating power within a new Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency (OPCA). The OPCA would control standards, budgets, staff, operations, and digital systems, including a centralized permitting portal.
Mississauga Councillor Alvin Tedjo said conservation authorities should present a united front, ideally led by Conservation Ontario, to ensure the public message remains coordinated. He added that reducing 36 authorities to 19 might have been reasonable — but collapsing them into seven is “something else entirely.”
Halton Hills Mayor Ann Lawlor echoed the concern, calling the plan an urgent threat to environmental safeguards. She argued municipalities and conservation groups have been “hammered by the province” and compared the restructuring to “selling a part of a public park or Wasaga Beach.”
Erin Mayor Michael Dehn urged the board to also engage First Nations, noting their longstanding stewardship role and governance rights over local lands and waters.
To strengthen political coordination, the board created a task force composed of Lawlor, Mississauga Councillor Dipika Damerla, and Brampton Councillor Michael Palleschi. The group will work on unified messaging for municipalities across the watershed and with neighbouring conservation authorities.
CVC staff identified multiple risks if the merger proceeds, including reduced municipal input, uncertain funding models, unclear land-ownership arrangements, threats to public greenspaces, and weakened capacity for local program delivery. The authority emphasized that CVC is already a high-performing organization recognized for regulatory compliance, watershed science, digital modernization, and collaborative partnerships.
The board has directed staff to submit its concerns to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks before the Dec. 22 deadline and circulate the document to all watershed municipalities.
The province says its consolidation plan aims to reduce duplication and better align conservation authorities with provincial priorities, noting that mandatory programs such as flood forecasting and source-water protection will continue. Governance changes are slated to take effect after the 2026 municipal election.
CVC’s watershed covers all lands draining into the Credit River, which stretches 90 kilometres from the headwaters in Dufferin and Wellington counties to Lake Ontario in Mississauga. Its member municipalities include communities across Dufferin, Wellington, Peel, and Halton.