NPCA planning policy changes supported by committee
Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority hopes to focus on its “core mandate” as a result of changes to planning policies under the agency’s jurisdiction, but Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn fears those changes will instead lead to more “green tape.”
Wednesday, members of Niagara Region’s planning and development services committee approved a new protocol between the conservation authority and regional municipalities, outlining the roles and responsibilities the agency plays regarding planning services. That protocol, which limits NPCA to dealing with only planning policies it is provincially legislated to oversee, will be included as part of a new memorandum of understanding being developed between the Region, lower- tier municipalities and NPCA.
Region director of community and long- range planning Doug Giles said as a result, the Region is now “just responsible for interpreting their own policies, and the NPCA is responsible for interpreting theirs.”
Fort Erie Coun. Sandy Annunziata, chair of NPCA’s board of directors, said the protocol “speaks to getting back to our core mandate, getting back to our true responsibilities.”
“Over the years our legislative mandate kept on expanding, and the conservation authority became almost a dumping ground of every environmental issue … This truly reflects what our true mandate is.”
In conjunction with that protocol, Annunziata said the conservation authority is planning “an education component that I know our board and our staff have been critically on top of, to make sure people understand what it is that the conservation authority does and what they’re responsible for.”
Augustyn said a memorandum of understanding adopted a decade ago was designed to clear up confusion in the community.
“That was the whole idea behind the protocol and it did work … It provided predictability,” he said. “Prior to the MOU and the protocol that is now being changed, there was conflict between the Region and the NPCA.”
He said he remembers hearing from developers before that MOU was adopted, concerned that they were getting conflicting information from NPCA and the Region on environmental issues. He said the original agreement was designed so that planning issues dealing with “everything wet and green” were handled by NPCA, leaving municipalities to focus on other planning requirements.
“I am absolutely opposed to this. We’re going back to the conflict stages and dark ages here. We’re adding green tape,” Augustyn said.
“Unfortunately, Coun. Augustyn gets on his high horse and speaks with little hyperbole,” said NPCA board member and Grimsby Coun. Tony Quirk.
“With respect, he’s making this statement again to this body and to the public,” he continued.
Quirk said the existing MOU “is not working,” adding developers view NPCA as “obstructionist, that they were outside their core mandate.”
Niagara Falls Coun. Bart Maves also recalled problems that developers faced after the existing MOU was adopted in early 2008.
“I could not believe the amount of negative comments that people kept saying to me about the NPCA,” he said.
Lincoln Mayor Sandra Easton called it “high time” that the existing MOU policies were being changed.
” I don’t think there should be any confusion at all about it,” she said.
“The other part of this was the blatant personal bias that people who were not planners were bringing to policy interpretation, because they were more environmentally oriented than others.”
In September, while working towards the development of the new MOU, NPCA cut eight frontline positions including several jobs that were associated with interpreting Niagara’s natural heritage policies. NPCA soon after rehired two of those workers.
Augustyn was the lone committee member to vote against supporting the new planning protocol with NPCA.