Historic Places Initiative Program
New Tools to Celebrate and Safeguard Canada's Historic Places
Nova Scotia is a proud partner in an exciting new heritage conservation strategy called the Historic Places Initiative. The Historic Places Initiative aims to foster a Canadian culture of heritage conservation and provide a system of tools to protect Canada's important historic places, a coast-to-coast celebration of our heritage.
The 3 main tools being developed include:
and diversity of Canada's heritage
"best practices" in heritage conservation, and
property owners to continue to use their heritage properties in new
and revitalized ways in preference to demolition.
Following is a brief summary of each of the primary tools.
Canadian Register of Historic Places
Developed collaboratively by federal, provincial, and territorial governments, the Canadian Register of Historic Places will provide on-line access to listings of formally recognized historic places across the country.
The Register will be the first pan-Canadian register, providing a single source for information about our historic places. It will serve as a tool for Canadians to identify and promote historic places in Canada, and assist travellers in locating places of interest across the country.
It will provide detailed information about historic places to planners, heritage professionals, policy-makers, developers, industry, community organizations, and teachers and students.
Finally, it will define the universe of places eligible for the federal funding program for the preservation of commercial heritage buildings, announced in the Government of Canada's Budget 2003.
Historic places may be buildings, battlefields, parks, archaeological sites, cultural landscapes, sacred sites, bridges, homes, cemeteries, railway stations, manufacturing plants, canoe routes, historic districts, schools, churches, canals, courthouses, theatres or markets. They can be large and perfectly intact. They can be modest and can have evolved over time. In all cases, they are places that we value because they tell stories about where we've come from and who we are.
To be eligible for nomination to the Canadian Register of Historic Places, a historic place must:
Process for listing on the Canadian Register of Historic Places:
| Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 |
| A formally recognized historic place record is identified by a Federal, Provincial, or Territorial Registrar as eligible for listing on the Register. | Once a Federal, Provincial, or Territorial Registrar determines that documentation requirements have been met, a historic place record is officially nominated for listing on the Register. | The official nomination is received by the Canadian Registrar, who undertakes a verification that documentation standards have been met. | Following this final confirmation, the historic place record is officially listed on the Canadian Register and published it on the publicly available Historic Places web site |
Using the most recent, data-transfer technology,
the Canadian Register of Historic Places will enable Federal,
Provincial, and Territorial Registrars to send historic place
listings at the click of a button. While the Register will
grow over time, some 20,000 historic places that have already
been formally recognized through municipal, provincial, territorial
or federal processes may be eligible for listing. Inclusion
of an historic place on the Canadian Register is honorific,
and does not involve additional controls on the historic place.
Standards and Guidelines for the
Conservation of Historic Places in Canada
In order to safeguard more of our historic places and reintegrate
these special places into community life, it is important
to develop standards for conserving them.
The Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic
Places in Canada is Canada's first comprehensive, nation-wide
benchmark of conservation principles and practices. Developed
by the Working Group on Standards and Guidelines, the document
sets out a disciplined approach to the assessment of conservation
projects and the identification of appropriate interventions
in conservation project plans.
They are firmly rooted in widely accepted heritage conservation
principles, and provide practical advice through the identification
of "recommended" and "not recommended"
approaches for everything from residential and industrial
buildings, to landscapes and archaeological sites. They have
been tested through 42 federal, provincial and municipal pilot
projects and three focus group discussions with conservation
professionals. The Standards and Guidelines will be distributed
and promoted to help raise the level of awareness about modern
conservation practices in retrofitting and urban re-development.
Parks Canada will be the first jurisdiction to endorse and
adopt the Standards and Guidelines, and will use them to guide
federal conservation practices and interventions. As part
of the pan-Canadian Historic Places Program, provincial, territorial,
and other jurisdictions may also adopt the Standards and Guidelines.
Commercial Heritage Properties Incentive
Fund Process
The third tool, Parks Canada's Commercial
Heritage Properties Incentive Fund Process, is the
accountability mechanism for the Government of Canada's new
funding program for commercial heritage buildings, which was
announced in the Budget 2003. The Government of Canada has
committed $10 million per year over three years to promote
private sector preservation of historic places.
The contribution program will Acompensate businesses for a
portion of the costs incurred in restoring heritage buildings.
The goal is to encourage the private sector to invest more
in the conservation of built heritage, and to favour this
approach over demolition. The contribution program will provide
the opportunity to "test the waters" for possible
future tax credits. The contribution program will make it
more viable to preserve and adapt historic buildings for re-use
in community life. Canadians will see more conversions of
old structures to new purposes, including housing, office
space, retail stores and community centres, particularly in
the downtown cores of our major cities. Over time, this will
preserve our urban landscapes, allowing us to see the physical
evidence of the endurance, innovation and achievements of
the people who built this country.
The Certification Process, which will be administered by Parks
Canada's Historic Places Program, will ensure that conservation
projects receiving federal contribution funding meet eligibility
criteria and conservation requirements. Eligibility will include
being listed on the Canadian Register, undertaking conservation
work in accordance with the Standards and Guidelines, and
preparing project plans.
Contact:
Rebecca Kennedy
Manager, Historic Places Initiative
Phone: (902) 424-4634
E-mail: KENNEDYR@gov.ns.ca
Mary-Louise Hartigan
Administrative Assistant
Phone: (902) 424-5647
E-mail: mhartiga@gov.ns.ca
or by mail,
Historic Places Initiative
1747 Summer Street
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
B3H 3A6
Website: www.nshistoricplaces.ca
Find out more about this program at www.historicplaces.ca.
Find out about Nova
Scotia's Heritage Property program