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Credit Valley Conservation Authority shares budget with Mono

January 28, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Peter Richardson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Credit Valley Conservation Authority (CVC) had a far from normal year in 2020, as it faced the unusual challenges brought about by COVID-19

CVC CAO, Deborah Martin-Downs and former Deputy CAO Mr. Jeff Payne presented their organization’s 2021 Budget to Mono Council during its meeting on Jan. 12, which began with the pair sharing some of the unprecedented difficulties presented in 2020. 

With COVID-19 and its many restrictions, 2020 was a different year for the CVCA, however they made the required digital transformation to adapt and continued to plan for the future, while connecting people with nature. 

Community engagement was maintained through a variety of virtual programs. One which was very successful for the CVC was the Butterfly Blitz, where more than 150 people learned to identify butterfly species, before going into their backyards to find as many as they could.

The CVC continued to work with farmers to protect grassland birds, such as eastern meadowlarks and bobolinks in a program where hay producing farmers delay their crop by a month in order to allow the birds time to hatch their eggs and teach the fledglings to fly.

There was also continued investment in parks infrastructure, including the completion of the natural playground at Island Lake. It is constructed entirely of natural components and gives children a chance to explore something not made of metal. 

Also a section of the Credit Valley Trail was completed. This trail will eventually be 100 kilometers long and run from Island Lake to Lake Ontario. 

As well, the CVC was named as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers in 2020 and one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers.  

The CVC 2021 Budget will see the Mono portion increase by only $5.00. The General Levy will increase by 2.59%, with the totals being an increase in the General Levy total of $282 and of the Special Levy of $25.00. So, from a General Levy of $10,895 in 2020, Mono rose to $11,177 in 2021 and from $2,615 to $2,640 for the Special Levy. 

It is interesting to note that of the Gross Operating Budget in 2021, 1% comes from the Province while 54% comes from the member Municipalities. There’s also 15% from user fees and the remaining 31% is generated by internal chargebacks/recoveries.

Councillor Fred Nix questioned as to whether or not the Province had decided yet what core policies and non-core policies are going to be. Core Policies are those that are mandatory and can not be opted out of and CVC’s CAO Deborah Martin-Downs explained that as yet this was not established because the Province has not made any decisions, pending input from the various Conservation Authorities in the Province.

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