February 2024 update

Amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act

Doug Ford’s Conservative Government is coming for our Conservation Authorities again. On April 1, 2024 new regulations that gut the Conservation Authority Act will come into effect. Read about them in the news by clicking on the images.

Here are the most serious changes Ford is imposing:

  • New legislation gives the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, the unprecedented power to override the Conservation Authorities. The Minister's decision is FINAL. This is an outrageous abuse of power. 

  • Elimination of consideration of "natural heritage" in the HCA's permitting decisions

  • Reduction of the development buffer around a provincially significant wetland from 120m to only 30m

  • Pollution can no longer be considered

  • The definition of a watercourse will be changed from: an identifiable depression in the ground, to: a defined channel having a bed and banks or sides leaving our headwaters open for development.

October 2022 update

Bill 23 “More Homes Build Faster Act”

Drastic changes to the CA Act including:

  • Replacement of individual regulations with a single new Regulation

  • Minister has authority to issue permits

  • Removal of power to make regulations on Conservation Authority-owned lands 

  • Definition of “watercourse” revised

  • Regulated area around Provincially Significant Wetlands reduced

  • Regulations may be enacted in future that exempt activities from permits where the development is authorized by the Planning Act

  • New exemptions

  • Pre-submission consultation required when applicants request

  • Minister can make regulations governing the conditions that may be attached to a permit

  • Restrictions in the types of conditions a Conservation Authority may attach to permits

  • Legislated permit application requirements and timelines

  • New appeals process

Source: Gowling Law

November 2020 update

Bill 229 - Amendments to Conservation Authorities Act

“The Doug Ford government is rewriting the rules for agencies that protect Ontario watersheds, undermining their powers and allowing developers to skip checks and balances, environmental advocates say.

In Ontario, 36 conservation authorities manage hazards like flood control and water quality, issue permits for construction in areas near crucial waterways and oversee conservation lands. The changes to the rules governing them undermine the agencies’ ability to ensure development in flood-plains is done safely, said Conservation Ontario, a non-profit representing the 36 conservation authorities.

“It just reduces our ability to protect Ontario’s environment,” said Kim Gavine, the general manager of Conservation Ontario.

“It’s almost like death by a thousand cuts.”

The changes were nestled inside Bill 229, a bill introduced Thursday to enact measures the government outlined in its 2020 budget.

Read more in the National Observer