Support for NVCA on Essa Township's endangered list
By Richard Blanchard

Essa council's problems with the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority came to the surface again last week during debate over a resolution from the municipality of Brockton for increased provincial funding to conservation authorities.

"I'd support the resolution if we could support the last sentence of the motion which would allow municipalities the option to opt out of funding them totally," said deputy mayor Terry Dowdall.

Essa has consistently voted against NVCA's budgets for the past five years and threatened to withhold its annual payment in protest four years ago.

Mayor Dave Guergis said that he felt that the authority was needlessly duplicating planning reviews which were already being performed by the local municipality and the county.

"There's something wrong when the NVCA has more planners than the county of Simcoe," he said.

Councillor Ron Henderson joked that he felt that the conservation authority could not afford to hire anymore staff because its parking lot was too small.