Described by 'Canadian…

Described by 'Canadian Architect' organization as a 'bomb', "Bill 23 will make it almost impossible to protect Ontario's identified heritage properties. This can only be seen as a knee- jerk response to a vindictive attack by the development industry on our heritage system." The University of Waterloo Heritage Resources Center states the following about the proposed changes to the Ontario Heritage Act, "The proposed changes will disrupt every community's capacity and ability to steward those significant sites and places that are important to safeguard because of the important stories they tell."
Both of these statements identify the devastation of Ontario's Heritage, in Bill 23. We are losing our history, our culture and our early settlement areas from pre-confederation to beyond the 18th ,19th and 20th century streetscapes now at risk. Everything is at risk - beautiful dwellings and homes, churches, banks, libraries, meeting houses, stores, schools, markets and town squares. All of these buildings in towns sprinkled everywhere in rural Ontario and urban Ontario are our culture. They must be protected and preserved, restored, protected and remain in their original states, to tell our history. They represent who we are, in this province, in this time, in this history of our lives. Our sense of ourselves is not up for sale to developers. Strike down Bill 23, and shame to those who constructed these changes.