Quinte environmental watchdogs are worried plans in play at Queen’s Park to consolidate Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities into seven new regional authorities may threaten decades of local controls needed to protect wetlands and natural areas from lack of oversight and runaway development.

Local controls could be lost in the bureaucracy of a new super agency, watchdogs suggested, leading to concerns of reduced flood controls, loss of endangered wetlands and drinking water source protections in place since local conservation authorities were first introduced in the province in 1946.

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In 1954, in the wake of devastating destruction of Hurricane Hazel, conservation authorities’ responsibilities were increased to stave off flash flooding in communities across Ontario.

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