The Essex Region Conservation Authority has its path set for 2018.
ERCA, whose mission is to protect and nurture the Windsor-Essex environment, unanimously approved its 2018 budget Thursday.
The $9.2-million spending plan includes a proposed levy contribution of over $3.1-million, accounting for an increase of about $101,000, or roughly nine cents per Windsor-Essex household. $51,000 will be set aside for operations and $50,000 for future asset replacement.
The proposed levy funds about 30% of ERCA's operations, placing it in the bottom five out of all 36 of Ontario's conservation authorities, and well below the provincial average of 45%.
ERCA chairman and Amherstburg town councillor Rick Fryer says the experience shared by those with ERCA helps keep costs down.
"The knowledge and skills that ERCA provides is a cost-effective way to manage regional environmental priorities," says Fryer in a news release. "Without the technical expertise that ERCA is able to offer from a regional perspective, each municipality would have to fund this expertise on its own."
ERCA general manager Richard Wyma says the authority is anxious to get to work on a series of programs this year.
"A robust suite of high priority projects and programs to protect and restore the natural environment of the region will be undertaken," says Wyma. "These include programs to increase habitat and forest cover, maintain and expand conservation areas and trails, aid our member municipalities in protecting people and infrastructure from the dangers of flooding and erosion particularly in the era of a changing climate, and to provide meaningful education and engagement opportunities for our residents."
Wyma adds that the authority received $26.5-million in levy contributions in 2017 and generated $35-million in new outside funding.
Among the projects slated for the year are initiating a regional climate change adaptation strategy, improving floodline mapping to adjust to the changing climate, creating over 100 acres of new habitat including a new wetlands project, and controlling phosphorus loading in Lake Erie.