The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority is in the process of creating a new watershed strategy.
Project Coordinator Kate Monk says the new strategy is one of the requirements of the updated Conservation Authorities Act.
“It requires that all conservation authorities have a water shed strategy which is an over-arching document. We have a strategy that goes to 2025 but it doesn't have all of the components that we need to meet the requirements of the regulation," Monk stated.
Monk says the new strategy will be an over-arching document.
“It includes standard things like our vision and our mission and our objectives. It will also pull in information from the studies and the watershed report card and then it sets forward, almost like a business plan for the conservation authority going forward," noted Monk.
The new strategy won't be significantly different from the document that's already in place. But Monk says they're currently in the process of getting cost apportionment agreements with their member municipalities, which will set out what they can do and what the municipalities would like them to do. Those agreements will be incorporated into the core things that they do, like protecting people and property from flooding and erosion and wraps it all into one document.
Monk says the new Watershed-Based Resource Management Strategy has to be completed in 2024, and the board has approved the first part of the document and is looking for public input on that. The deadline for comments on the first phase is September 15. More information about the Strategy can be found on the public consultation page (https://www.abca.ca/involved/consultation/) on the ABCA website (https://www.abca.ca/).
