The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority is in the news for two separate reasons today.
The Authority's CAO Carmen D’Angelo was appointed as Niagara's CAO at a special meeting this afternoon and Welland MPP Cindy Forster is looking for answers regarding the Authority.
Today, she has sent a letter off to the Minister of Natural Resources looking for answers regarding lack of financial transparence and accountability.
Here is the entire letter sent to the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry Kathryn McGarry.
In follow up to two letters sent to your office early this year raising the issue of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority direction on local development proposals and the larger issue of biodiversity offsetting, I’m writing today to underscore the related concerns I raised in our phone conversation on Friday October 28th, 2016, regarding the lack of financial transparency and accountability within the NPCA.
Outside of self-generated revenue, I understand that 48% of funding provided to conservation authorities comes through municipalities. Additional sources of funding for the authorities are provided by the provincial and federal governments (10% and 2% respectively). It’s been brought to my attention that a motion at a recent Niagara Regional Council meeting, requesting a financial audit of the NPCA, was defeated. Given the alarm bells that many in my community have raised around the lack of financial transparency and given that $7.3 million in funding it receives are taxpayer dollars, I find this extremely troubling. As such, I urge you to launch an immediate financial audit of the NPCA.
Under the Ministry of Natural Resources’ (MNR) May 2010 directive, section 9.2 states that that MNR reserves the right to audit conservation authorities for adherence to these policies and procedures and to review their effectiveness as it relates to implementation of provincial policies and protection of provincial interests. Given the concerns brought to my attention, I am urging you to invoke this directive and launch a financial audit immediately.
Minister, the effectiveness and the credibility of the organization, which I have addressed numerous times in the Legislature, appear to be at stake. As you know, the organization was founded not only by one of my predecessors, the former Mel Swart, but many others dedicated to the conservation of protected lands. We owe it to their hard work and to the community at large, to address these concerns.
I look forward to your timely response to this request and thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.
Kind regards,
Cindy Forster, MPP
Welland Riding