That support, and the fact that the Toronto region has more private donors to conservation causes, has cushioned the Toronto authority more than many rural authorities, whose operations have suffered more. Still, the Conservation Foundation, the Toronto authority's agency for raising money to buy stretches of riverbank or forest, has been restructured to raise money just to keep the authority operating. At the authority's headquarters on the edge of the Black Creek Conservation Area at Jane St. and Steeles Ave., staffers talk about the struggle to develop money-making concepts that don't clash with watershed protection. The Toronto authority has laid off 20 per cent of its staff. Pioneer Village now operates only eight months of the year.
Gate fees are up, and new fees apply to events inside the conservation sites.
The authority is also trying to attract businesses by mounting catered corporate picnics at the more attractive conservation areas. All the fundraising in the name of survival also leaves authorities ill-equipped for the extent of the challenge ahead. Developers are buying land and demanding construction permits on the moraine and other sensitive lands. Municipal Affairs Minister Tony Clement has apparently ruled out a development freeze on the moraine, disappointing local councils and conservation authorities which had hoped the province would protect Toronto's headwaters. Successive rulings from the Ontario Municipal Board have given private landowners and developers victories that have weakened the authorities' power to regulate the watershed.