I’m Chair of the Grand River Conservation Authority!

Just elected Chair of the Grand River Conservation Authority. But what is the GRCA, you ask and what does it do?

Here is the answer right from the website: “The Grand River flows 300 kilometres through southwestern Ontario from the highlands of Dufferin County to Port Maitland on Lake Erie.

The Grand River Conservation Authority manages water and other natural resources on behalf of 38 municipalities and close to one million residents.”

If you live in Southern Ontario you may know the GRCA best through it’s many parks such as Elora, Pinehurst, Rockwood and Byng Island. World wide you may know of it through its world class fly fishing.

http://www.grandriver.ca  A great website that includes realtime water flows.

Here are some of the issues facing the GRCA, that I raised during my acceptance speech.

The GRCA is a Canadian Heritage River and won the Theiss Riverprize as one of the best managed watersheds in the world. We have excellent staff who work hard with limited resources to keep our river system sound.

The health of our river system both in water quantity and quality is a pressing issue as we prepare for the effects of climate change and population growth.

Staff and stakeholders are presently working on the Grand River Watershed Management Plan and  Source Water Protection is moving ahead. We must remain vigilant that it includes a strong mandate to improve the health and safety of our river system. 

Climate change, as we can see from other places in the world, should concern us all. We need to make sure our governments understand the dangers of ignoring our infrastructure of  dams and flood controls. Population growth means more sewage with its problems. 

The next four years will bring continuing concerns about our budget .  We need more money from other levels of government as well as a hard look at our own budget.  We cannot protect the watershed without a viable budget.

The GRCA is now on Twitter and Facebook and we have many publications and contacts with the media. But more needs to be done to raise our profile and get our residents to understand the importance of the river  and our environment and the importance of our expensive water and wastewater systems. I have attended meetings on water with my constituents and have had to remind them that the Grand River is not the polluted river of the past.  One of the ways we can do this is by involving the public in our Strategic Planning Process.

Our Strategic planning process is key for the next four years. To simply lower or raise our budget is not enough. We need to have defined goals and objectives for the watershed, then a plan to fund it.  Not only do we need to hear from staff, board members, the public and stakeholders but we also must have ways of reporting back and measuring our success in meeting our outcomes. I have several ideas on how this may be done, as I know many of you do also.

Together we can keep the GRCA one of the best managed watersheds in the world.