At the April 6, 2021 Region of Durham Planning and Economic Development Committee meeting, Ajax Mayor pulled correspondence from the Town of Ajax.

The Town of Ajax has passed a direction to send this letter to the Honorable Jeff Yurek at the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks.  The letter outlines the Town of Ajax's objection to having three developers on the Conservation Authorities Working Group.

Initially approved by Ajax Council in February, Mayor Collier was looking for the Region of Durham to endorse this letter instead of simply receiving it for information.

In his comments to the committee, Mayor Collier mentioned that politicians must go through a commenting process to be heard, while developers have seat at the table, and said, "we feel that this is fundamentally wrong."

He continued on to say, "we feel the conservation authorities have already had their powers reduced substantially, and now to put members of the development community on; and I'm not saying anything negative about them, but I'm just saying the conservation authorities are already operating a little under duress as we've seen."

Mayor Collier also said that having developers on the working group was akin to putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

Mayor Collier's motion was seconded by Councillor Lee, but lost.

Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan, also Chair of the committee, moved a motion to receive the correspondence for information, and stated that the working group had been in place since December, and that the 18 individuals in the group included 11 from conservation authorities, 1 politician, AMO and 2 regional staff members, and 3 from the development community.

Chair Ryan's motion to receive for information passed.