Challenges include the provincial government making conservation authorities ineligible for some grants for things such as wetland creation.
The “drying up” of long-running grants for things such as tree planting and land stewardship programs has the local conservation authority looking to municipalities for help, its general manager says.
Advertisement 2
Article content
Challenges include the provincial government making conservation authorities ineligible for some grants for things such as wetland creation, said the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority’s Ken Phillips.
Article content
“We were getting (grants) for 20-plus years, and then the provincial government has now decreed we are now no longer eligible for that program funding,” he said.
Ditto for planting trees, he said.
“While we can get money to buy tree stock, we can no longer get money to actually get the trees in the ground,” he said.
Another $30,000 grant for education programs — the conservation authority talks about ecology with some 20,000 students a year — is also gone, he said.
Phillips recently approached Sarnia city council, the latest on a 17-stop campaign to request funding support for the programs.
Advertisement 3
Article content
So far, 13 municipalities have committed some form of funding, adding up to about $100,000 a year, though some funding commitments are for five years and others for shorter spans, he said.
“Our municipal partners have really stepped up and I can’t thank them all enough,” he said.
The funding gives the conservation authority more leverage to apply for new grants that require matching funds, he said, noting a number of federal grant opportunities have been identified for 2024, though none have been confirmed.
“The provincial government still, there might be opportunities,” Phillips said.
“But we’re just playing a wait-and-see game.”
There’s no plan to curtail tree planting, education programs or land stewardship work locally that’s historically relied on grants, donations and user fees to operate, he said.
Advertisement 4
Article content
But “if we had not received the support we’ve received from our municipal partners, that would have been a very strong consideration going forward,” he said, adding “I can’t thank them all enough.”
It’s also been a good opportunity to tell municipal councils in the Sydenham River watershed more about what the conservation authority does, he said.
“It just creates a better awareness and partnership,” he said.
Sarnia council gave no response Monday, when Phillips presented his request for $100,000 a year for five years.
That was expected, Phillips said, noting he has until March 31 to have such municipal agreements in place and reported to the province.
“It’s just up for discussion” until then, he said.
The deadline was supposed to be last December, but he received an extension, he said.
Advertisement 5
Article content
Sarnia in 2024 is providing about $600,000 to the conservation authority for other things, like flood control operations and watershed monitoring.
In all, the conservation authority is receiving about $4 million from municipal funders for that sort of work, a little more than one-third of its $11.2-million budget for the year.
Average total annual spending on tree planting, land stewardship and education programs in the conservation authority’s boundaries — including Strathroy-Caradoc, Chatham-Kent, Lambton Shores and Middlesex Centre, among others — is $700,000, Phillips said.
Conservation authority officials have said they typically plant 50,000 to 70,000 seedlings every spring, and conduct 12 to 20 wetland projects a year.
Article content