Bluewater council has reversed an earlier decision to opt out of the non-mandatory services offered by the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority.

Mayor Paul Klopp says under the system set up by the Province, conservation authorities offer mandatory and non-mandatory services to their member municipalities and at their 2024 budget meeting council decided to opt out opt out of the non-mandatory services, which Klopp said represented about one half per cent of their budget. So they directed their representative on the Conservation Board Greg Lamport to tell the board that the municipality had decided not to fund any of the non-mandatory services and said they would prefer to pay a user fee as required for the services they needed.

Klopp says Council Lambert came back to council after attending an ABCA Board meeting with a suggestion that Bluewater council re-consider funding the non-mandatory services and after some discussion a motion to do that was approved. Klopp says those non-mandatory services are already included in the 2023 budget but now they are back in the 2024 budget as well. But Klopp adds, he hopes the ABCA Board will take a good look at their 2024 budget with a goal of reducing the over all hit to the member municipalities.