Thirty-six become nine. The records come too.

Ontario’s decision of 10 March 2026 consolidates the province’s conservation authorities into regional bodies: thirty-six become nine, and seven eastern authorities merge on 1 February 2027. Most of the conversation is about governance, boundaries and budgets. Far less is said about the filing cabinets.

Yet those cabinets hold a watershed’s memory: permit decisions and the reasons behind them, property agreements, board minutes, decades of monitoring data and large-format maps no one has redrawn. A merged authority inherits all of it, from several partners, each with its own way of filing.

A merger is a once-in-a-generation chance

Moving paper is slow and risky. Boxes get lost, mislabelled or simply never unpacked. Moving searchable files is quick, and it lets the new authority start with one archive instead of a stack of partner collections.

It also forces the question every records manager wishes they had time for: what do we actually keep? A merger is the moment to apply your retention schedule before anything moves, so you scan what matters and destroy, with a certificate, what doesn’t.

Move searchable files, not truckloads of boxes.

Getting it right

Agree on one naming convention early, ideally the one the new authority will use, so records from every partner land in the same structure. Index by the fields staff and the public search by: permit number, property address, roll number and watershed. Scan maps and plans at full size; they are often the hardest records to replace.

And keep access requests in mind. Conservation authorities answer to MFIPPA, and its clock doesn’t stop for a merger.

The real point

The new authorities will be judged by how well they protect people and land. Their records are the evidence of every past decision. Bring that memory across whole, searchable and in one place, and each new authority starts with the full story of its watershed.

General guidance only, not legal or regulatory advice.