Councillors and staff defend continued expansion of Perth County Stewardship Program in 2026

Though there was some concern about opening up the application period for the spring 2026 intake of Perth County’s Stewardship grant program before the program is discussed and approved as part of the county’s 2026 budget, several staff and councillors spoke in favour of the program aimed at increasing the county’s tree canopy and improving the overall environment.

At a recent county council meeting, county resiliency and stewardship coordinator Hannah Cann presented details of the 2026 Perth County Stewardship Program, $125,000 for which will be included in the county’s 2026 draft budget – up from $100,000 in the 2025 budget. The report was presented just over two weeks after its spring intake application period opened on Oct. 1.

“Normally, when staff comes to us and they want to have stuff in the budget, we have to give pre-approval, and I think that’s one of those things because if staff’s going out to tender for trucks or paving or any of that kind of thing, it comes to council first,” said Coun. Rhonda Ehgoetz, who represents Perth East on county council. “So, I think this is a little premature. We haven’t even looked at our budget, we don’t know where our budget’s at. We’re also duplicating a service that’s already offered by the conservation (authorities) and I think we’re charging our ratepayers double – we’re paying a levy to the conservation (authorities) and we’re also paying for this.

“I also realize there’s (an additional) $25,000; I think that’s another item council needs to talk about during the budget deliberation. We have an awful lot of items on our budget now, and our budget’s getting higher all the time. I think this is a program we really have to look at during budget.”

While both Ehgoetz and Coun. Sue Orr, a representative on county council for Perth South, expressed concerns around accepting applications for 2026 before discussing the stewardship program’s future at budget time – especially if council opts to reduce funding or cut it altogether – staff explained the timing of the application period for spring intake is intentional.

CAO Laurie Wolfe told councillors applications for the spring intake need to be accepted from Oct. 1, 2025, to Jan. 30, 2026, to help inform 2026 budget discussions with information about how many applications have been made to each of the four funding streams and how much funding is being requested, while also giving staff enough time to review each application before the spring planting season. She also noted that should council decide to cut the program during budget discussions, the county would inform applicants after that decision.

As for the notion that council might reduce or cut the stewardship program, deputy warden Dean Trentowsky, who also serves as chair of the county’s agricultural working group – the committee that helped develop the program in the first place – spoke strongly in favour of continuing down the path of future program expansion.

“What do we say to the community after we went through extensive consultations to set this program up,” he said. “We went through extensive consultation and discussion with the four conservation authorities that serve Perth County. What do we say to those people if we would decide to say, ‘Oh, no. We’re not doing that anymore. Sorry. We got you all onboard, we got you all working together cooperatively. Oh, no, we don’t feel like doing it anymore.’

“So, yes, we will have that discussion at budget and I look forward to that. In the meantime, I will point out in the 2022 Upper Thames River Conservation Authority watershed report card, it’s not a very flattering picture. Regardless of anyone’s opinions of the Upper Thames or the other three conservation authorities that serve Perth County, there is important work to be done and this ag. working group, through council, has endeavoured quite diligently to perform that work.”

According to Cann’s report to council, as of 2025, Perth County maintained only nine per-cent tree cover, with some wards reporting levels as low as four per cent. Existing woodlands are experiencing a significant decline in health due to the compounding effects of stressors such as invasive species, habitat fragmentation and ongoing land-use changes.

To date, the Perth County Stewardship Program has achieved significant ecological milestones, including the successful planting of 20,584 trees and the establishment of 31.234 kilometres of strategic windbreaks. Additionally, 38.85 acres of previously degraded marginal lands have contributed or are contributing to land restoration and biodiversity enhancement. Collectively, these efforts are estimated to generate an annual carbon sequestration capacity of approximately 57,635.2 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, underscoring the program’s tangible contribution to climate mitigation and environmental resilience.

Speaking to Ehgoetz’s point about the program offering funding that already exists through the local conservation authorities, Cann told councillors conservation authority funding is under a lot of strain from the province, it does not offer consistency from year to year and many of the grant programs that exist have strict requirements precluding many of the smaller tree-planting projects that receive funding through the county’s stewardship program.

While the stewardship program was initially launched to support tree-planting projects across the county through its four initial funding streams – landowner, community, woodland and living snow fences – Cann said she has a six-year plan, developed in consultation with the agricultural working group, that will expand the program to offer funding streams that address other environmental concerns.

“It was the plan in the conception of our stewardship program to build upon the streams year over year as more funding was available,” Cann said. “As the first year of funding was focused on tree planting and we blew through that funding very quickly with the applications received, we decided to open it up with more funding in 2025, again focused on tree planting.

“However, there is a six-year plan that I’ve crafted to implement more streams under the stewardship program’s umbrella that encompass things that are included in Huron County and Wellington County’s clean-water portfolios, including agricultural best-management practices, manure and waste storage decommissioning, well decommissioning, water quality and aquatic habitat restoration, private drinking water protection and infrastructure, invasive species and biodiversity enhancement, and climate resilience and stormwater and flood mitigation.”

While the stewardship program’s spring application period will remain open until Jan. 30, 2026, whether it will be funded fully as proposed by staff won’t be determined until budget deliberations begin.