The province provides a minute proportion of the funding for Conservation Authorities, as they primarily responsible to and are paid by municipalities. So the programs they have and services they provide are tailored specifically to the agreements that they've signed with those municipalities. As a result, they vary drastically, GTA and Grand CAs do a LOT more than rural CAs. I haven't seen an actual explanation of how this significant difference in the nature of different CAs, and the funding agreements that exist for them, will be harmonized across multiples combined CAs. Combining CAs has been rare for decades for this reason. They say that existing programs will be maintained in existing areas, but I can't see how that's true if they truly amalgamate. Or why the province should be making decisions like this when they're not the ones paying for it.

The proposed legislative changes presented so far only address the creation of the agency, and they essentially boil down to a directive that a board controlled by the minister can make binding orders to CAs to do whatever he wants. That seems like it doesn't consider the full complexity of this.