• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

‘We are moving forward’: NVCA won’t ask for Wasaga councillor’s resignation as chair

By
In About Us
Sep 8th, 2019
2 Comments
2617 Views
George Watson

by Ian Adams Wasaga Sun

A Wasaga Beach councillor will continue his tenure as chair of the conservation authority.

At its Aug. 23 meeting, the board of the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority decided not to ask for George Watson’s resignation, even though his municipality had expressed the viewpoint — as part of the regional review process — that conservation authorities should be dissolved and those duties handed off to the county level of government.

The question of Watson continuing as chair was raised at the NVCA’s June board meeting by the citizens group AWARE Simcoe, and those concerns were echoed by some members of the board during that meeting.

In a letter dated July 15, in response to a letter from Watson regarding comments made about his chairmanship at the board’s June meeting, vice-chair Keith White — speaking on behalf of the board — stated the resignation was requested due to “(the board’s) loss of confidence in your ability to appropriately chair the organization.

Text of letter: Letter to GW

“As you can appreciate, your support of (Wasaga Beach’s) recommendation to dissolve the NVCA puts the board into a very difficult situation,” White wrote. “In short, your support of Wasaga’s position raised serious concerns as to whether you can discharge your duties as chair in a fair and impartial manner.”

Read more 

 

2 Responses to “‘We are moving forward’: NVCA won’t ask for Wasaga councillor’s resignation as chair”

  1. Paul Arnill says:

    “AWARE Simcoe reserves the right to edit or not publish comments ” ?
    Well then I’m certain no one will see this one as I and many more believe George Wilson to be absolutely correct in his opinion that Nottawasaga Conservation Authority has completely outlived it’s usefulness and should be dissolved .
    No one questions the need to protect our environment. The question is however, Just how many government agencies do we need doing essentially the same thing ?

    • Ann says:

      Paul,
      First of all it’s George Watson, not Wilson!
      The issue is that as the NVCA board Chair, George Watson should not be endorsing that the NVCA be dissolved. Instead, he should have stood up for the NVCA and discouraged Wasaga Beach Council from voting to dissolve it! How can he be the board chair and at the same time look to dissolve the NVCA? That’s a direct Conflict of Interest, and he should do the honourable thing and resign!!

Leave a Reply

Commenters must post under real names. AWARE Simcoe reserves the right to edit or not publish comments. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *