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Supporting Heritage in Your Community — Main Presentation Speaker Notes

Use the following notes in conjunction with the main presentation.

Slide 1

Introduce yourself and your team.

Suggested Speaker Notes

• This is a brief presentation about heritage in our community, and its contributions to both our economy and to our quality of life.

Slide 2

For More Information

• Strengthening Ontario’s Heritage, Page 2

Suggested Speaker Notes

• Our heritage is a big part of what makes a community unique.
• Ontario’s identity and character are rooted in our rich and diverse heritage.
• Heritage enhances our quality of life and sense of place.  It reflects the distinct expressions and aspirations of our community and its culture.
• Heritage is not just about the past.  It is about the places, spaces and stories that we value today and saving and preserving them for tomorrow.

Slide 3

For More Information

Strengthening Ontario’s Heritage, pages 3-5
www.advocacyaction.org/english/pays/introduction.htm

Suggested Speaker Notes

• Historic places and heritage buildings are fundamental to our sense of history, community and identity.
• Communities across Canada, the United States, and abroad have been capitalizing on their distinctive heritage assets by revitalizing their historic business cores and reclaiming them as the commercial and social hubs of the community.
• Besides economic value, heritage resources have intrinsic value in the information they contain about the past.  They can teach us a great deal.  Who lived here?  What happened here?

• Buildings, landscapes and archaeological sites can give us a unique insight into our past – knowledge that sometimes cannot be obtained any other way.  Our heritage helps us make sense of our rapidly changing world and guides us into the future.  Well-maintained historic buildings, streetscapes and landscapes contribute to safe and comfortable neighbourhoods and foster local identity and pride.

Slide 4

For More Information

• www.advocacyaction.org/english/tourism/introduction.htm
• Copies of Built Heritage: Assessing a Tourism Resource are available through the office of the Heritage Canada Foundation, Ottawa, Ontario

Suggested Speaker Notes

What attracts tourists?  Original heritage buildings and sites, historic architecture, natural and cultural landscapes.  Surprisingly to some, Canada’s built heritage is a significant motivation for international visitors to travel to Canada.  Of long-haul travellers interested in travelling to Canada, 74 per cent want to visit historical buildings and sites, and 85 per cent want to visit interesting small towns and villages (France Strategic Segmentation Study Final Report, August 1999).  Heritage tourism is a major market.

Every year, Doors Open Ontario attracts large crowds across Ontario.  Both residents and visitors participate, discovering first-hand Ontario’s heritage treasures.

Slide 5

For More Information:

• Copies of Preservation Pays – the Economics of Heritage Conservation are available through the office of the Heritage Canada Foundation, Ottawa, Ontario
• The Architectural Conservancy of Ontario notes on Demolition Myths can be found at www.arconserv.ca

Suggested Speaker Notes

The greenest building is the one that already exists.  Old buildings embody energy and materials.  Reusing older buildings saves the destruction of trees, saves the energy used to transport them to mills and create new construction materials, and saves more green space from development.  Heritage conservation saves demolition, land development and construction time costs.  It helps retain or create high-skilled jobs.  It develops the market value of existing buildings and neighbourhoods while contributing to economic development such as cultural tourism.  Heritage conservation contributes to developing a culture of repair and reuse.  Rehabilitating heritage streetscapes and buildings – sometimes starting with the restoration of a single community landmark – can generate a whole range of economic benefits.

The Cambridge Example

• www.theglobeandmail.com
• The Globe and Mail: A university’s Grand idea – Waterloo’s relocated School of Architecture has injected new life into a former silk mill and a flagging community (Lisa Rochon, 24/11/05)

Slide 6

For the entire interview: www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arc_mag/ja06shortanswer.htm

Suggested Speaker Notes

In an interview with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Donald Trump, New York City real estate developer, said that not only can development and historic preservation exist side by side, it’s actually cheaper to use an existing structure.

Slide 7

For More Information

• The Rutgers University study, Partners in Prosperity: The Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation, can be found at http://www.state.nj.us/dca/njht/publ/downloading_partners_prosperity.html

Suggested Speaker Notes

• These figures are in US funds.
• For some Canadian examples and studies of adaptive reuse, you or your audience might be interested in The Lazarus Effect by Robert Shipley.  It can be found at www.fes.uwaterloo.ca/research/hrc/lazarus-jan20-verA.pdf.

Slide 8

For More Information
www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_90o18_e.htm

Note

The Ontario Heritage Act is enabling legislation. Until your municipality begins to enact the OHA, such as passing designation by-laws, actions such as establishing a municipal heritage committee are not compulsory.

Suggested Speaker Notes

Municipal councillors, staff and volunteers can have a tremendous impact on heritage by:

• Creating a municipal heritage committee and providing it with resources (such as training).
• Setting the municipal budget for heritage conservation and cultural tourism initiatives.
• Establishing heritage conservation policies in the official plan.
• Making land use planning / development decisions that respect heritage.
• Supporting local heritage activities.
• Staff roles vary from municipality to municipality, but heritage conservation can involve almost everyone from the clerk’s office to the fire department.
• Owners of designated properties also have roles to play under the Ontario Heritage Act.

The municipal heritage committees assist council in exercising its powers under the Ontario Heritage Act and carrying out other heritage preservation activities, including liaising between council and property owners.

Other participants in heritage might be the local media, tourism associations and professionals, business associations, historical societies and cultural centres.

Slide 9

For More Information
www.culture.gov.on.ca/english/heritage/Ministry_Book_Eng.pdf

Suggested Speaker Notes

We often think of heritage in terms of the past, but we see heritage and interact with it on a regular basis, often without even realizing it.  Heritage is not only about researching our family history or visiting a community museum; it’s walking through a cemetery, driving across an old bridge, attending a fall fair, working in an office in a refurbished factory, giving directions using local community landmarks.

There are three key steps in heritage conservation: identification, protection and promotion.

Slide 10

Use this slide to lay out some of the things you’d like to do in 2007.  What you want your audience to do?  What do you need from council to turn those opportunities into successes?

A few questions to help you put this information into the context of your community:

1.      What heritage resources does your community have?

2.      Does your municipality have a municipal heritage committee?

3.      What links does heritage have to economic activity and development in your community?

4.      What opportunities are there for further links?

5.      Who in your community is involved in protecting and promoting heritage?

6.      How would you like to get / be more involved?

7.      How can your municipality play a more leading role in heritage?

8.      What are the tools which your municipality can implement to help protect heritage?

Suggested Speaker Notes

Our MHC has a strategic plan to propose.  Our strategies include…