Chatham-Kent officials are trying to work out how to deal with species at risk as part of a downloading of responsibility from the province.
General Manager of Infrastructure and Engineering Services Thomas Kelly says a move to shift the responsibility from the Ministry or Natural Resources and Forestry to municipalities might mean hiring up to four new staff members.
"You're looking at senior level positions, biologists, highly technical positions that are experts in the various species [at risk] in Chatham-Kent. Right now we have about 80 different species," he says. "We are going to come forward with a plan to basically say 'here's what we can do and here's what we expect from MNRF' and develop an agreement which may have some give and take in it."
Kelly says the move, which was announced last year, was not meant to be expensive for municipalities and discussions will begin soon on an implementation plan.
He says the more than 4,200 municipal drains alone constitute a huge amount of assessment work whenever maintenance is needed.
