Our story goes back to 1946, when the Province of Ontario passed the Conservation Authorities Act. It empowered municipalities within a watershed to address issues such as water quality, flooding and soil erosion though a single collaborative agency, a conservation authority.
On April 5, 1949, the Lions Clubs of Orangeville, Georgetown, Brampton and Port Credit held a joint meeting at the Yellow Briar Inn on Highway 10 in Brampton. There, they discussed issues of flooding, pollution, soil depletion and improving marshes. As they talked, they concluded the Credit River Watershed needed a conservation authority.
Led by Lions Club members Elmer Wright from Port Credit and Alex McLaren from Georgetown, they asked A.H. Richardson of the province’s Conservation Branch to speak to concerned citizens about conservation, why it was important to everyone and how “soil, waters and trees are all linked and part of the same concerns.”
As Mr. Richardson spoke, those attending–including councillors and members of the provincial legislature were moved by the need to act together to conserve and wisely manage the shared natural resources of the Credit Valley.
Several years later, the momentum had taken hold. In April 1954, the municipalities within the watershed voted to petition the province. Less than a month later, on May 13, Cabinet officially established the Credit Valley Conservation Authority through an order in Council, whose officers were to be local members from the communities of the watershed.
An Order in Council, May 1954.
From its very beginnings, CVC has been a local movement of people and communities across the Credit River Watershed that have come together to better manage the local environment on which we rely for our health and our future.
As we celebrate our 70-year anniversary, we invite you to follow us on social media as and we look back on our 70-year history and reaffirm our role to serve the people and nature in the Credit River Watershed.