Don’t disband conservation authority, councillor says

By Laurie Watt Simcoe.com Sept 29, 2009
Bad blood that has been flowing between Essa Township and the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority for years could soon come to the boiling point, says one of Barrie’s NVCA reps.
Longtime Coun. Barry Ward said the relationship between the pair has been strained for years – and he’d hate to see Essa Township Mayor Dave Guergis’ move to disband the authority succeed.
Part of the Nottawasaga watershed extends into Barrie, and if its member municipalities disbanded the authority, floodplain planning would fall into local hands.
“Conservation authorities, on a watershed basis, oversee planning,” the Barrie councillor explained, noting no other legislated entity examines the environmental impact of developments. Municipalities plan to the limit of their boundaries, while conservation authorities look at the impacts downstream.
“What you’re doing in Essa Township may affect what happens in Wasaga Beach, and that has to be considered,” said Ward.
“If a municipality gets persuaded to put in a development which truly doesn’t belong, the conservation authority is a check, a balance. I’d be very worried if municipalities had the final say.”
The latest Essa-NVCA issue includes a dispute over land Guergis’ wife owns on Highway 90 in Angus near a No Frills store. Leesa Turnbull-Guergis has spent a lot of money to remove trees to clear the way for development, originally for a Canadian Tire, although that deal has expired.
But Guergis says his push to remove the authority’s powers has nothing to do with delays the NVCA had caused for his wife’s development land. The dissolution motion is based on cost and the inefficiency with which the NVCA works to better the watershed, according to Guergis.
Meanwhile, the dispute has consumed a lot of NVCA resources, Ward said.
“They’ve taken up a lot of staff and executive time to deal with this matter. In my mind, it’s a waste. They’re doing it the wrong way,” he said.
“The dispute with Essa goes back a few years. This is just the latest. I was never able to understand why Essa is so dissatisfied.”
Another sore point relates to the Utopia conservation area and mill, which Essa leased and pledged to restore. The township, however, did not and during its tenancy, there was an oil spill into the creek, Ward said. The project is now in the hands of a community group.
“It’s a long complicated story. For some reason (Essa) refuses to co-operate,” said Ward.