Letter to the Editor
Editor,
It seemed coincidental that the February 2015 issue of Canada’s Municipal World magazine should have an article entitled Heritage Builds Resilience: Infrastructure funding can and should include investments in a community’s heritage assets.
The article cited many examples of publicly owned and deteriorating heritage buildings that were saved and re-purposed into heritage infrastructure that added to the economic and social well-being of their respective communities. The West Point Lighthouse and Inn on Prince Edward Island, the No. 2 Fire Station in Moncton and the grand old movie theatre in Indian Head, Saskatchewan now called the Grand Theatre are all good examples of living sustainable heritage, said the author Natalie Bull, Executive Director of Canada’s National Trust (NT), a national charity that leads and inspires action to save historic places and regenerate communities.
Quoting from the NT website; “For the week of February 16, 2015, the National Trust encourages Canadians to celebrate Main Street: At the Heart of the Community. Our Main Streets and traditional downtowns are a heritage worth celebrating. As venues for commerce, entertainment, worship, shopping and more, they speak volumes about a community’s social and economic history.
Downtowns have long been places where families and friends gather to shop, enjoy parades and fireworks, and where communities commemorates milestones. Providing a rich and textured backdrop are the historic buildings that line our main streets: landmark post offices and places of worship, commercial architecture with enticing display windows, and homegrown shops and cafés that together create a vibrant mix of services and uses.
Car culture, the rise of regional shopping malls and big box stores that pull shoppers and businesses away from city centres have been hard on our historic main streets and downtowns. But hundreds of communities recognize that the heritage of downtown is an asset that attracts new residents, invites tourists, and stimulates new investment—the foundation for a vibrant economy and a sustainable future”.
Who knew that there was once a federal pilot project to provide funds to commercial ventures to test ‘the appetite and impact of potential tax incentives for heritage rehabilitation.’? According to the article the results were impressive. Bull said that this “made-in-Canada incentive for heritage structure can be a powerful lever to save Canada’s history, keep tons of building material out of the landfill, create employment for local contractors and craftspeople, and revitalize communities.”
I’m sure that several of our local Councillors get this magazine, have read the article and are looking into the details of the Commercial Heritage Properties Incentive Fund (CHIPF) pilot to see if it has evolved into another incentive program.
Beautiful facades are part of our local identity. Other small towns have managed to save the uniqueness of a few short blocks of their main street. I hope we can too.
Lindy Iversen, Meaford
