Wednesday 12 March 2014

Environment Canada Tightens Tap on NCC

In the 2014-2015 Plan and Priority Report coming from Environment Canada it appears that the Federal funding tap has thankfully been tightened up on The Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The increase between 2013–14 forecast spending and 2014–15 planned spending is mainly due to:

increased planned spending for the SDTC Foundation;
increased planned spending for the Action Plan on Clean Water initiative;
decreased planned spending for the Nature Conservancy of Canada;
and decreased planned spending for the Clean Air Agenda.

Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) is a not-for-profit foundation that finances and supports the development and demonstration of clean technologies which provide solutions to issues of climate change, clean air, water quality and soil, and which deliver economic, environmental and health benefits to Canadians.



The Report claims that The Nature Conservancy of Canada will only receive $20-million dollars in funding this year which will be a substantial drop from the $34-m they received in 2013.  It's a start.

Total revenue received from federal government :

2013  $34,752,843

2012  $36,443,107
2011  $39,957,373
2010  $24,923,831
2009  $48,073,363
2008  $45,529,015 Subtotal $229,679,532 over 6 years!
2007    $2,849,867
2006    $3,136,580
2005    $2,852,838

With over $20-million of that money being spent to purchase farms in Norfolk County and remove them from production, one can only hope that NCC's hostile takeover bid is finally slowing down.  The real result of the NCC's invasion will not be felt for a few years down the road as the farms come off the tax base and fall under the Conservation Land Tax Incentive Program.  All properties under the CLTIP will enjoy 100% tax free status.  According to our calculations this will reduce Norfolk County's tax revenue by over $80,000 each year. 




Forests cover almost two-thirds of Ontario’s landbase which is a land area equivalent in size to the landmasses of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands combined.  71 million hectares of forest in Ontario, which represents about 17 percent of Canada’s forest and 2% of the world’s forest.

Parks and protected areas account for 12.4 per cent of Ontario’s Planning Area.  There are currently 329 regulated provincial parks covering a total area of 7.9 million hectares, plus 292 regulated conservation reserves covering almost 1.5 million hectares. These regulated protected areas cover approximately 9 per cent of the province.

Will the reduced revenues slow The Nature Conservancy's attempts to buy off our Conservation Authorities?

Will they be unable to continue to pay for our local politician's land trust funds?

Will this stop NCC's regifting practices to their other pet projects?

Will they continue to use their political connections to attempt to change laws even though they claim they are not a political lobbying charity?

Will they be able to afford a sign at their head office in Norfolk County or will they continue to hide out in secret?

Who knows, but this is a good start.

A Corporation with $ 672,332,921 in assets and $ 35,540,648 in cash does not need another turn at the public teat.

Maybe they could start at the $ 15,018,477 they declare as the cost of compensation as a means of cutting costs.

252 full time employees costing $13,356,771
47 part time employees costing $ 1,661,706

There always seems to be a large amount of bloat and waste when we look at the charitable organizations.  Conservation should be the largest expense, but its very rare in our analysis.

Citizens/Tax Payers should know why their money is going to a private corporation that already enjoys charitable status.  It should be 'OUR' option to donate shouldn't it? Thank you Canadian Government for noting that The Nature Conservancy of Canada is not every Canadian's preferred Charity.  There are still those of us who believe in helping those who actually need it.



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