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The Heritage Canada Foundation watches carefully what is happening in heritage preservation across Canada. In many communities, owners of heritage buildings are restoring them and putting them to good use. In others, heritage buildings are being neglected. Often, heritage organizations ask us for support in saving threatened historic buildings and community landmarks. In response, we give advice and help groups to strengthen their arguments for preservation. We write letters of support to help get buildings protected by municipal, provincial or federal laws. We also share ideas about finding funds to restore heritage buildings. The Heritage Canada Foundation also makes sure that preservation is on the agenda of all levels of government. We help to shape and strengthen laws and policies that affect heritage property, including the tax treatment of buildings. Paving the Way: A Roadmap for Heritage and Development Heritage buildings and districts need ongoing financial investment and the renewal that comes with adaptive re-use and adjacent new construction. There are many great success stories demonstrating effective and innovative new development that uses historic buildings and revitalizes entire historic areas and neighbourhoods. However, the news is also full of cases where developers, elected officials and citizens are locked in conflict over controversial development projects affecting heritage areas. Clearly, there is a real need to address issues, barriers and gaps and put historic places on a level playing field for conservation and development. This report represents the findings of a national consultation opportunity built into the Heritage Canada Foundation’s 2007 annual conference, Big Plans for Old Places: Heritage & Development in Canadian Communities, and pursued through meetings, case study research and analysis, and discussion threads on the heritage sector’s listserv, AGORA-L The various consultation strategies yielded Action Items which were ‘tested’ against a handful of recent Canadian case studies selected for their representative heritage and development challenges. These action items are outlined in this roadmap. To view the Paving the Way: A Roadmap for Heritage and Development(pdf), click here. For more information about our advocacy activities, please write or e-mail the Heritage Canada Foundation: heritagecanada@heritagecanada.org
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