I have grave concerns for…

I have grave concerns for the changes proposed to the Ontario Heritage Act. The changes will make it much more difficult to preserve and protect our heritage in this province. We have already lost so much.
Having municipalities needing to officially designate a heritage property within two years and then not allowing those that are not designated within that 2-year timeframe to be reincluded for at least five will make it more difficult to prevent these properties from being demolished. Hence we continue to lose more heritage properties. Municipalities need the time to identify properties with heritage value, so that they can then include them in their heritage registry before formally beginning the process to designate. This is an important way to protect properties from being demolished without approval. Many of these beautiful structures have lasted for over a century. I ask you how many homes are built these days to last that long.

Requiring heritage districts to meet more stringent criteria is short-sighted and ill-advised as well. There are better ways to go, we can do better to ensure we don't lose our heritage properties and districts which communities hold with pride and neighbourhood cohesion, all important aspects of healthy communities.