This Bill's effect on…

This Bill's effect on heritage will be devastation of communities' identity, history and character. Since 1975 the Ontario Heritage Act passed and has helped to preserve through protection and resuse of our historic sites and landscapes. Many government departments on all levels were set up to create programs and assist communities with keeping their history alive through the visible, tangible works of architecture that identify their place in our provinces development and achievements.

How does one politician have the right to wipe out the work of countless professionals, community voluntees and government employees of the past almost fifty years? He doesn't.

There are other options for assisting the housing needs of communities and enabling the destruction of history without public input or municipal policy is absurd. Why not take over the acres of surface parking lots in our cities and build housing on them.

This is tyranny. Ford is acting like a dictator. He must be stopped and enlightened by the many who have been working in the area of heritage preservation for many generations and by visionaries in other countries who have solved the housing shortage without giving free reign to developers and retaining our valuable architectural works of art.

Architecture is an art and the best examples of every period are the property of the tax payers of their communities. We choose our built heritage as an essential part of everyday life which supports our shared identity and quality of life. Destroying heritage sites is traumatic for communities.