Recipient of HCF 2008 Achievement Award: Reader Rock Garden Restoration Project

Ottawa – July 31, 2008 – Yesterday, in Calgary, the Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) and the Calgary Heritage Authority (CHA) presented the City of Calgary’s Reader Rock Garden Rehabilitation Project with a 2008 National Achievement Award. Catherine C. Cole, Chair of HCF, presented the award jointly with Gerry Meek, CHA Chair, to project manager, Anne Charlton, Director of Parks, who accepted on behalf of the City of Calgary.
 
Dating from 1913, Reader Rock Garden was used as a private residence and garden for William Roland Reader, Calgary’s most influential Park Superintendent, and is where he tested and documented over 4,000 plant species. The quality of his plants and seedlings were recognized internationally. It is also the first garden in Calgary to be rehabilitated using the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada. The Garden officially re-opened in May 2006 following the rehabilitation, and visitation has exceeded expectations.
 
The Heritage Canada Foundation Achievement Award, given jointly with the Calgary Heritage Authority, recognizes outstanding work and commitment in the field of heritage conservation. The award was presented at the Arrata Opera Centre (formerly the Wesley United Church) on July 30, 2008.

Click backgrounder for more information about the Reader Rock Garden project. .

For further information:
Carolyn Quinn, Director of Communications, cquinn@heritagecanada.org

Telephone: 613-237-1066 ext. 229; Cell: 613-797-7206

Heritage Canada Foundation 35th Anniversary Conference presented in partnership with the Canadian Land Trust Alliance

 Work That Endures: Power to the People Keeping Places Alive

www.heritagecanada.org

Designed to make the heritage workforce stronger by nourishing ideas, enriching the conservation sector and strengthening ties between built heritage and the environmental movement.

Over 60 speakers will be joining us in historic Québec City—don’t miss this milestone event!

Register online today and save!

Conference Program (pdf)

Printable registration form (pdf)

Conference at a glance

Featured Speakers:

• Keynote address by National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine, speaking about the spirit of place.

• Jean-Paul L’Allier, former mayor of Québec City and past-president of the Organization of World Heritage Cities.

Featured Sessions:

• Workshops on the Main Street approach to community revitalization brought to you by La fondation Rues Principales.
• Case studies of techniques for practicing community-based conservation presented by the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals.
• Sessions and mobile workshop on techniques and tools in heritage presentation and interpretation organized by Interpretation Canada and l’Association Québécoise d’interprétation du patrimoine.
• Panels of experts explore reforms to tax incentives; the new lighthouse protection legislation; and developments in maintaining and adapting endangered places of faith.
• Training opportunities with professionals and volunteers on becoming a savvy advocate.
• Parks Canada archaeologists and interpreters share findings uncovered at the Saint-Louis Forts and Châteaux National Historic Site.

Places and Events:

• Opening Reception at the École de cirque de Québec, with acrobats and jugglers demonstrating inside a converted former church.
• A selection of Walking Tours through some of Québec’s most historic districts.
• Gala Awards Ceremony and Dinner at the restored Théâtre Impérial in historic Saint-Roch district.
• Closing Party & Dinner at the spectacular Manoir Montmorency and Falls.

This conference is held in conjunction with the Rues principales/Main Street Colloquium on September 24, 2008, and in collaboration with the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals.

Feel free to share this message with your friends and colleagues.

We look forward to seeing you in Québec City!

The Heritage Canada Foundation is a national, membership-based, non governmental, charitable organization with a mandate to promote the preservation of Canada’s historic buildings and places. Visit www.heritagecanada.org.

For further information:

Carolyn Quinn, Director of Communications, cquinn@heritagecanada.org

Telephone: 613-237-1066 ext. 229; Cell: 613-797-7206

Heritage Canada Foundation Deplores Loss of Ontario Heritage Landmark to Fire

Photo: Robert Chaulk, Sun Media Corp.

Ottawa, Ontario – May 30, 2008 - The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) deplores the devastating loss of the historic Alma College in St. Thomas, Ont., to fire on Wednesday shortly after the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) agreed to its demolition last week. The 130-year-old building’s needless destruction indicates the failure of both the Ontario Heritage Act and the OMB to protect this heritage site despite the efforts of so many individuals and organizations.

Designated a heritage site by the municipality in 1994, the college spent the intervening years deteriorating as development plans repeatedly surfaced and floundered. The current owner, Alma Heritage Estates, appealed city council’s decision not to issue a demolition permit to the OMB last year. The city subsequently negotiated a deal with the developer—that was endorsed by the OMB in mid-January—allowing for the demolition of everything but the central tower. That agreement was overturned last week in favour of full demolition although any new construction would have had to include a replica of the tower.   

“The tragic loss of Alma College is a microcosm of all that is wrong with the heritage conservation system in Canada,” stated Natalie Bull, HCF executive director. “Fundamentally, it shows a lack of commitment to reusing our existing building stock—something countries like the U.S. actively encourage through financial incentives for rehabilitation.”

HCF included the distinctive high Victorian Gothic Revival landmark on its 2006 Top Ten Endangered Places list and just this past January urged the Ontario Minister of Culture to intervene on its behalf to ensure protection by designating it a provincial heritage site.

The Heritage Canada Foundation is a national, membership-based, non governmental, charitable organization with a mandate to promote the preservation of Canada’s historic buildings and places.

For further information:
Carolyn Quinn, Director of Communications, cquinn@heritagecanada.org
Telephone: 613-237-1066 ext. 229; Cell: 613-797-7206

News coverage:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080530.walma
30/EmailBNStory/National/

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2008/05/29/5702351-sun.html

http://stthomastimesjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1049412

http://stthomastimesjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1051450&
auth=Eric+Bunnell

http://stthomastimesjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1056440&
auth=Kyle+Rea%2c+TIMES-JOURNAL+STAFF

http://www.lfpress.com/perl-bin/publish.cgi?x=galleries&p=2453
&s=gallery

http://www.lfpress.com/perlbin/publish.cgi?x=articles&p=234961
&s=hottopics

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/alma-college-burns-down.php

Heritage Canada Foundation Welcomes Passing of Heritage Lighthouse Bill

The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) is delighted to report that bill S-215, An Act to protect heritage lighthouses was passed by Parliament on Wednesday after nearly ten years of effort. The private member’s bill, sponsored by former B.C. Senator Pat Carney who worked tirelessly on its passing, empowers communities to help preserve Canada’s heritage lighthouses. It is expected to receive Royal Assent shortly.

A strong supporter of this preservation initiative since 1999, HCF has worked closely with elected officials and local advocates in helping to bring this legislation forward. “It’s a momentous day for Maritime heritage in Canada,” said Natalie Bull, executive director. “HCF looks forward to helping local community groups to seize this conservation opportunity.”

There are federal lighthouses in every province except Alberta and Saskatchewan. MP Larry Miller, whose Ontario riding (Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound) has several historic lighthouses, carried the bill through the House of Commons.

Moving third reading in the Senate, Senator Lowell Murray noted the original version of the bill was introduced in 2000 by the late Senator Michael Forrestall of N.S. Until now, successive bills have failed to make it through the legislative process.

“It’s wonderful to see all the hard work by so many people finally come to fruition,” said Barry MacDonald of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society who has worked for this legislation from the beginning.

After criteria for heritage lighthouses are established, communities will be able to petition the Minister of the Environment for heritage designation and propose community uses for any building surplus to operational requirements.

A Backgrounder on the legislation is available on the HCF website.
The Heritage Canada Foundation is a national, membership-based, non-profit organization with a mandate to promote the preservation of Canada’s historic buildings and places. Visit www.heritagecanada.org

For further information contact:
Carolyn Quinn, Director, Communications; cquinn@heritagecanada.org
Phone: 613-237-1066 ext. 229; Cell: 613-797-7206

Heritage Canada Foundation Releases 2008 Top Ten Endangered Places and Worst Losses Lists

OTTAWA, ON-April 30, 2008 - The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) has released its Top Ten Endangered Places and Worst Losses Lists drawing attention to a total of 20 architectural and heritage sites in Canada either threatened with demolition or already lost.

The Top Ten Endangered Places List, compiled from nominations received as well as from news items that HCF has been following and reporting on throughout the year includes:

• The Riverdale Hospital, Toronto, a well-preserved Modernist landmark heading for landfill
• Montréal’s BENS Delicatessen—a cultural icon—destined for the dump
• Winnipeg International Airport, the finest mid-century modern, art-filled air terminal in Canada heading for a crash
• The Old GTR Station, Kingston, an 1856 limestone original in critical condition
• St. Patrick’s Church, Halifax, victim of a shrinking downtown congregation
• The GTR Roundhouse in Biggar, Saskatchewan, the last of its kind on the prairie, on demolition watch
• Bonavista’s Alexander Bridge House, Newfoundland—the oldest standing house in the province—struggling against a tide of decay
• The Church of the Holy Cross, Skatin, B.C., a National Historic Site known as the “cathedral in the wilderness” and desperately seeking survival funding
• The Winter Street Prison, the oldest stone structure in Sherbrooke, Quebec, on death row
• Old St. Patrick’s Church—the oldest surviving Catholic church in Calgary—left to vandals

Click Backgrounders for the full story and photographs.

Topping the Worst Losses List is the historic Québec City Armoury needlessly lost to fire in April. Examples of historic places destroyed by the wrecking ball are plentiful: Toronto comes up big with the demolition of the Bata Shoe Headquarters, a hallmark of modern design, and Walnut Hall, the once elegant Georgian row that crumbled into the street due to chronic neglect.

Elsewhere in Ontario can be found the Seagraves Building in Windsor where a 1905 industrial heritage building ended up in landfill thanks to a permit office oversight, and Hamilton’s historic Balfour Building, part of the infamous Lister Block, collapsed from decay.

Out west, Vancouver lost the stunning Graham House to demolition—an early design by Canadian architecture icon Arthur Erickson; Edmonton saw one of its mid-century Modernist designs, the Central Pentecostal Tabernacle, fall to the wrecking ball; and in Saskatoon the Legion Building was demolished in the name of progress.

In the Maritimes Kentville, Nova Scotia demolished the rare DAR Roundhouse in favour of new development and in Rothesay, New Brunswick, the site of the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was paved over to put up a parking lot.

Click Worst Losses for more information.

A handful of root causes—not the least of which is Canada’s status as the only G8 country without a national system of heritage-related incentives and legislation—underlie these lost and threatened sites.

For an update on HCF’s past Top Ten Endangered Places lists, click Updates.

The Heritage Canada Foundation is a national, membership-based, non-profit organization with a mandate to promote the preservation of Canada’s historic buildings and places.

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THERE IS STILL TIME TO MAKE A NOMINATION!

If you know someone whose work and dedication in preserving and promoting Canada’s rich architectural heritage then consider nominating them for a Heritage Canada Foundation Award.

The nomination deadline has been extended to May 5, 2008!

Gabrielle Léger Award for Lifetime Achievement in Heritage Conservation
Named after the wife of former Canadian Governor General, Jules Léger, this award that recognizes individuals for their outstanding service to the country in the cause of heritage conservation.

Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Heritage Conservation at the Provincial/Territorial Level
This award recognizes outstanding achievement by an individual or group in the province in which the Heritage Canada Foundation’s Annual Conference is held. This year, the conference will be held in Quebec City, Quebec.

Prince of Wales Prize for Municipal Heritage Leadership
Under the generous patronage of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, this prize is awarded to a municipal government, large or small, rural or urban, which has demonstrated a strong and sustained commitment to the conservation of its historic places.

The Gala Awards Ceremony will be held on Friday, September 26, 2008 at the Théâtre Impérial as part of our annual conference.

All nominations must be received on or before May 5, 2008, so don’t delay!

For information on nomination procedures, contact Carolyn Quinn, Director of Communications at cquinn@heritagecanada.org or visit the Heritage Canada Foundation website at http://www.heritagecanada.org/eng/services/awards.html

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Heritage Canada Foundation Marks Earth Day with Landmarks, Not Landfill Campaign

Ottawa, ON April 21, 2008 – In recognition of Earth Day the Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) calls for an end to the wasteful demolition each year of countless heritage buildings across the country that end up as landfill.

In Ontario alone, 2.2 million tonnes of landfill (23% of the total) comes from demolition and construction waste, representing an irreplaceable loss of environmental and cultural resources.

The many heritage buildings recently lost to Canadian communities and bulldozed into landfill sites over the past year includes:

• Arthur Erickson’s David Graham House, Vancouver, British Columbia
• The Legion Building, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• Seagraves Factory, Windsor, Ontario
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Rothesay, New Brunswick
• Bata Shoe Headquarters, Toronto, Ontario
• Walnut Hall, Toronto, Ontario

On April 30th, HCF will release its 2008 Top Ten Endangered Places List drawing attention to other sites destined to become landfill.

The government of Canada can help reverse this demolition trend with financial incentives to encourage private sector investment in the preservation of historic places. For over 30 years, the United States has used tax credits for heritage building rehabilitation, successfully preserving hundreds of historic places.

Landmarks, Not Landfill is a postcard advocacy campaign that gives Canadians a voice in calling for financial incentives in the next federal budget.

Visit: http://www.heritagecanada.org/petition_start.htm

For further information:
Carolyn Quinn, Director of Communications, cquinn@heritagecanada.org
Telephone: (613) 237-1066 ext. 229; Cell: (613) 797-7206
www.heritagecanada.org

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Heritage Canada Foundation Marks World Heritage Day with Release of Short List of Historic Places of Worship At Risk

OTTAWA, ON – April 18, 2008 – To mark World Heritage Day and its theme, religious heritage and sacred places, the Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) is releasing a short list of four endangered religious heritage sites—a small sampling of the many places of worship at risk in Canada.

Short listed endangered places include the Heyfield Memorial United Church in Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, targeted for demolition; St. Patrick’s R.C. Church in Halifax, closing in June because of a collapsing congregation; Toronto’s All Saints’ Church Community Centre, suffering from severe neglect while its land value skyrockets; and the Church of the Holy Cross in Skatin, B.C., a national historic site in desperate need of repair.

For the backgrounder and photos click: Endangered Places Shortlist

At least one of these sites will appear on HCF’s 2008 Top Ten Endangered Places List to be released on April 30, 2008.

This year, an issue of Heritage magazine will explore conservation action for Canada’s historic places of worship, while HCF’s 2008 annual conference “Work That Endures: Power to the People Keeping Places Alive” includes a roundtable on this emerging crisis.

World Heritage Day, also known as International Day for Monuments and Sites was created in 1982 by ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) and endorsed by UNESCO in 1983.

The Heritage Canada Foundation is a national, membership-based, non-profit organization with a mandate to promote the preservation of Canada’s historic buildings and places. www.heritagecanada.org

For further information:
Carolyn Quinn, Director of Communications, cquinn@heritagecanada.org
Telephone: 613-237-1066 ext. 229; Cell: 613-797-7206

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Heritage Canada Foundation Calls for Passage of Lighthouse Protection Bill

Ottawa, ON – April 3, 2008 – Appearing yesterday before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO) to comment on Bill S-215 An Act to protect heritage lighthouses, the Heritage Canada Foundation’s (HCF) executive director, Natalie Bull, called on committee members to support legislation that will protect the icons of Canada’s coastal and inland waterways. HCF and heritage advocates from across Canada have been working toward this legislation to preserve Canada’s lighthouses for a number of years.

Ms. Bull stressed that protection of lighthouses under current federal heritage buildings policy is inadequate and doesn’t incorporate public notice or consultation when a lighthouse is altered, transferred or demolished. This new heritage lighthouse protection act “would engage communities in the protection of their historic places by putting a clear process in place, and increase accountability by providing opportunities for pubic scrutiny,” stated Ms. Bull. The Act would establish a process to select and designate heritage lighthouses; prevent their unauthorized disposal; require their maintenance; and facilitate sales or transfers in order to ensure their continuing public purpose.

HCF is hopeful that with the strong presentations made to the committee and the number of committee members expressing support for the legislation, it will soon be passed into law. Ms. Bull thanked the many Senators and MPs who have supported the bill over the last number of years. Particularly the Senator Pat Carney and Senator Lowell Murray, and MPs Larry Miller (Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, Ont.), Peter Stoffer (Sackville-East Shore, N.S.) and Gerald Keddy (South Shore – St. Margaret’s, N.S.).

Also appearing before the committee were Barry Macdonald, president of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society, David Bradley, chair of the Association of Heritage Industries – Newfoundland and Labrador, and Peter Noreau, Vice-president of the Corporation des gestionnaires de phares de l’estuaire et du golfe du Saint-Laurent.

Debate on the bill will wrap up at the committee on Thursday, April 10th. The bill will then go back to the House of Commons for 3rd and final reading. HCF urges all supporters of built heritage to contact the chair and vice-chairs of the FOPO committee and MP Larry Miller to express their support for this bill.

MP Fabian Manning (Chair, FOPO) Manning.F@parl.gc.ca
MP Raynald Blais (Vice-Chair, FOPO) Blais.R@parl.gc.ca
MP Bill Matthews (Vice-Chair, FOPO) Matthews.B@parl.gc.ca
MP Larry Miller (Sponsor of Bill S-215) Miller.L@parl.gc.ca

For more information: Carolyn Quinn, Director of Communications, Heritage Canada Foundation cquinn@heritagecanada.org Tel: 613-237-1066, ext. 229, Cell: 613-797-7206

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Ottawa, ON – March 7, 2008 – The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) congratulates Dr. Christina Cameron on receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Public Service of Canada from Prime Minister Stephen Harper for her exceptional 35-year career with Parks Canada.

In her various roles as the director general of the National Historic Sites program, and secretary to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Christina Cameron has been instrumental in creating public policies and programs to support the protection of Canada’s historic built environment. She was a central player in the Historic Places Initiative, a unique federal/provincial/territorial collaboration designed to create a culture of conservation across Canada. In her most recent appointment as chair of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee–which is responsible for implementing an international agreement that aims to protect places that are considered to be of outstanding universal value–she has advanced Canada’s reputation as a world leader in the protection of natural and cultural heritage.

“National recognition is well warranted for the role Dr. Cameron has played in building Canada’s system of heritage programs, institutions, tools and measures,” remarked executive director Natalie Bull, speaking from HCF headquarters in Ottawa. Dr. Cameron served on the board of directors of the Heritage Canada Foundation from 1991 to 1995.

In 2005, Dr. Cameron was appointed the Canada Research Chair on Built Heritage at the University of Montréal, where she currently holds a full-time teaching position.

Achievement awards were also presented to Philip H. Amundson, Canada Food Inspection Agency, Denis Comeau, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Michael Horgan, Environment Canada and Dr. Calvin Wayne Lindwall, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

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Ottawa, ON – March 4, 2008 – The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) congratulates Dr. Harold D. Kalman of Vancouver and Ms. Loree Stewart of Marsh Lake, Yukon—two former members of HCF’s board of governors—who were among five individuals recently appointed to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada to advise the Minister of the Environment on the designation of places, people and events of national historic significance.

Harold Kalman is a principal at Commonwealth Historic Resource Management Ltd. His extensive knowledge and experience in the conservation and development of historic sites and structures throughout Canada and abroad proved an asset to the Heritage Canada Foundation’s board of governors. He served as representative from British Columbia from 2001 to 2004.

The executive director of the Yukon Heritage Resources Board,
Loree Stewart has over 20 years experience in heritage planning, historic site development and advising on historical matters in the Yukon. Ms. Stewart was an active member of the Heritage Canada Foundation board of governors from 1999 to 2005 where she sat on several committees and served as vice-chair from 2002 to 2004.

The HSMBC will also be well-served by three other distinguished appointments. They include Ms. Ingrid Diana Kritsh of Yellowknife,
Dr. Jean-Claude Marsan of Montréal and Dr. David A. Sutherland of Halifax.

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Ottawa, ON February 27, 2008– The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) expressed disappointment that the federal Budget tabled yesterday afternoon by the Minister of Finance again missed the opportunity to help make landmarks, not landfill.

“A federal incentive for the rehabilitation of historic properties is absent from this budget. Also missing is a clear commitment to the Historic Places Initiative, an exceptional model of federal-provincial-territorial collaboration that laid the groundwork for such an incentive,” said executive director Natalie Bull.

A cornerstone of the Historic Places Initiative was the Commercial Heritage Properties Incentive Fund (CHPIF), which leveraged private dollars to rehabilitate landmarks like the Lougheed Block in Calgary and CenterBeam Place in Saint John. CHPIF ended early in 2006, and today’s budget was silent on its future.

“Municipal officials, developers and property owners from across Canada tell us that many more historic buildings would be reused and recycled if they could count on a predictable incentive or source of funding for rehabilitation,” said Ms. Bull.

Canada has lost more than 20% of its pre-1920 heritage buildings to demolition over the last 30 years. Demolished buildings account for as much as 30% of the waste in Canada’s landfills.

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Ottawa, Ontario February 22, 2008 – The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) joined representatives from Canada’s built heritage and natural heritage organizations, leading private sector developers, and representatives from Britain’s National Trust and the U.S. National Trust for Historic Preservation at a two-day roundtable on the creation of a Canadian National Trust.

Hosted by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment on February 21 and 22, 2008 the roundtable was part of the government’s efforts to follow through on the 2007 federal budget announcement of a new National Trust.

“With 35 years experience helping Canadians keep historic places alive, HCF has much to contribute to this important discussion,” said executive director Natalie Bull who attended the roundtable. “This event provided an excellent opportunity to hear from a range of leaders and stakeholders about the longstanding gaps and challenges in the heritage sector.”

The Heritage Canada Foundation looks forward to continued participation in evolving a National Trust for Canada.

The Heritage Canada Foundation is celebrating its 35th anniversary as the national, membership-based, non profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Canada’s built heritage and historic places through national leadership, advocacy, education and demonstration.

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Ottawa, ON – February 18, 2008 – In honour of Heritage Day 2008, the Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) is presenting its newly released online resource guide Work that Endures—Careers in Built Heritage. Read the stories of more than a dozen Canadians from across the country working to keep historic places alive.

This year HCF is celebrating the men and women whose specialized skills—be it as restorers of fine decorative plaster, as developers rehabilitating urban history, or as activists preserving community landmarks—are contributing to a sustainable future.

People like stained glass restorers Norbert and Helga Sattler of West LeHave, Nova Scotia, whose expertise is sought after throughout the Maritimes and beyond, or master plaster specialist Jean-François Furieri of Toronto’s Iconoplast Designs, whose decorative detail work can be seen in the city’s Pantages Theatre, Royal Ontario Museum and New York City’s Selwyn Theatre and Manhattan Opera House.

Uncover stories about developers like Calgary’s Neil Richardson who is making a profit investing in historic building rehab and along the way is giving the city’s landmark Lougheed Building and Grand Theatre a second chance. Learn about teachers and activists who are opening young people’s eyes to the endless possibilities of creative building conservation practice.

And they all report loving their jobs. Not only is their work intellectually stimulating and never routine—it is literally work that endures.

The full colour resource guide is available online at www.heritagecanada.org/eng/h_day.html

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Ottawa, ON – February 15, 2008 – Appearing yesterday before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates to comment on the federal government’s sale of nine buildings (including three heritage buildings) in August 2007, the Heritage Canada Foundation’s executive director, Natalie Bull, called on the government to recognize its important role as the trustee of legacy buildings and to put in place better protection for heritage buildings under its care and those transferred to the private sector.

Ms. Bull’s recommendations include the creation of statutory protection and maintenance standards for federally owned and regulated historic places. The Foundation also urged the implementation of “heritage first” provisions to promote the reuse of existing heritage buildings by the federal government. Since 1996, United States federal agencies have been required to fill their accommodation needs in heritage buildings first, to the maximum extent feasible.

Ms. Bull stressed that the only effective strategy for protecting heritage buildings leaving federal ownership is to register protective covenants on property titles. Current Treasury Board disposal practice requires the government to make “best efforts” toward protection, but does not make a covenant or other form of statutory protection a condition of sale.

“Federal buildings do much more than provide accommodation for federal institutions,” underscored Ms. Bull. “ They were designed to make a big impression and to reflect our ideals as a nation and our system of government. They were built to last as public landmarks and monuments, representing the federal presence in towns and cities across the country.”

Demonstrating the highest standards of design and construction, many federal buildings showcase some of Canada’s best architects and represent a national legacy that is held in trust for all Canadians.

The federal government counts more than 1,300 designated heritage buildings among its property holdings. That number does not include an unknown backlog of federally owned buildings 40 years old or older, but not yet submitted for heritage review. To date, about 6,300 buildings have been evaluated, out of a total of about 46,000.

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The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) is urging Ontario Minister of Culture Aileen Carroll to intervene on behalf of two heritage buildings featured on its 2006 Top Ten Most Endangered Places List—Hamilton’s historic Lister Block and the landmark Alma College in St. Thomas.

For details, click here.

To view letters sent to Ontario Minister of Culture Aileen Carroll, click here: Alma College Letter (pdf)  &  Lister Letter (pdf)

To view letter sent to Mayor Fred Eisenberger, City of Hamilton, click here: Lister Letter (pdf)

For local news coverage, click here.

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