Grand River Conservation Authority

The Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) manages water and other natural resources on behalf of 39 municipalities and close to one million residents of the Grand River watershed.

The GRCA is a partnership of watershed municipalities and provides an avenue to work together, addressing environmental issues and opportunities that serve to benefit the entire Grand River watershed.

The GRCA budget is approved by the board of directors at the Annual General Meeting in February. About half of the GRCA‘s revenue is self-generated through park and camping fees, hydroelectricity generation, fees for service and other sources. Roughly one-third comes from watershed municipalities and about 10 per cent from the Ontario and federal governments (however recent legislative changes may impact this share).

The GRCA‘s expenditures are focused on programs, services and projects to reduce flood damages, improve water quality, maintain a reliable water supply, protect natural areas and biodiversity, provide environmental education, operate conservation areas and trails, and manage other environmentally sensitive natural lands.

The GRCA programs align with the Sustaining our Future priority through the protection of natural resources leading to climate change mitigation impacts, and helping to reduce Guelph’s carbon footprint. GRCA is a partner in Guelph’s priority—to protect the quality and quantity of Guelph’s finite groundwater source.

$0 or 0.0% net increase in budget due to:

• The GRCA has provided an estimated increase of 2.9 per cent at that the time of budget development and further information will be included in the presentation for Council. No budget adjustment was made as the current budget was sufficient to accommodate this increase.
• This cost is included and funded within the Water and Wastewater Services budgets.

$79,896 net budget increase mainly due to:

• This forecast includes inflationary assumptions only.