Updates to the Ontario Heritage Toolkit

The Ontario Heritage Tool Kit consists of five separate guidance documents which provide support to municipalities in the identification, protection and conservation of heritage properties. The Tool Kit also describes the roles of municipal heritage committees, how citizens can participate in heritage conservation, and the importance of conserving places of worship. The five guides are as follows:

1. Designating Heritage Properties is a guide to municipal designation of individual properties under the Ontario Heritage Act.
2. Heritage Property Evaluation is a guide to listing, researching and evaluating cultural heritage property in Ontario communities.
3. Heritage Conservation Districts is a guide to designating districts, containing multiple properties, under the Ontario Heritage Act in order to conserve local character and heritage interest.
4. Your Community, Your Heritage, Your Committee is a guide to establishing and sustaining an effective Municipal Heritage Committee that provides advice to council.
5. Heritage Places of Worship is a guide to keeping heritage places of worship viable in the community while conserving their cultural heritage value or interest.

Key users of the Ontario Heritage Tool kit include municipal councils, municipal staff, municipal heritage committees, land use planners, heritage professionals, heritage organizations, property owners, and others seeking to understand the heritage conservation process in Ontario.

The provincial government enacted a series of legislative changes to numerous Acts (including the OHA) between 2019-24 to address the housing crisis. This legislation includes:  

• Bill 108:  More Homes, More Choices Act, 2019,
• Bill 23:   More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022, and
• Bill 200:  Homeowner Protection Act, 2024.   

Changes were also made to the OHA through the Less Red Tape, More Common Sense Act, 2023 (Bill 139) that related to proposed alterations to places of worship.

Following changes introduced through Bill 108: More Homes, More Choice Act, 2019, ministry staff began revising the Tool Kit to reflect the changes to the OHA, however release of the updated Tool Kit was delayed due the announcement of potential additional legislative changes to the OHA. 

Stakeholders and the public were consulted on the proposed updated Tool Kit in June 2021 through this posting. 

When further amendments were made to the OHA through the subsequent bills mentioned above, ministry staff revised all five Tool Kit guides as necessary.