Does heritage protection matter at the ballot box?
How candidates approach preservation speaks to their priorities
Children who were in kindergarten on the day Somerset House partially collapsed in October 2007 are in high school now, and there’s a good chance they’ll be licensed to drive a car before something comes of the vacant heritage building on the corner of Bank and Somerset streets.
The fall of Somerset House and the ensuing collective curiosity about its fate have outlasted mayors and city councillors, and outworn the patience of neighbouring businesses, residents and virtually anyone else in Ottawa who passes its sad facade regularly.
“It’s one of the most frustrating files I’ve ever had to deal with,” an exasperated Jim Watson said in a recent interview.
People often corner the mayor and say, “Why don’t you do something about that?”
“I wish we could do something about that,” goes his standard reply.
For the most part, Somerset House has been in the same sorry state for Watson’s entire time in office. The city can’t make someone spend money to fix up a building, nor can it force an owner to sell it to someone else with the creativity and financial means to complete — in the words of heritage planners — an “adaptive reuse,” he explains.
As for expropriation, Watson dismisses the idea outright, saying such a move would send the wrong message to landowners and, in essence, “reward bad behaviour.”
So there Somerset House stands, boarded up and plastered with posters as another municipal election comes into focus.
In terms of hot-button issues, protecting heritage buildings may lack the appeal of meatier municipal election issues such as transit, development, roads and garbage collection (though let’s hope that last one has, at long last, finally been put to rest).
But how our city’s elected leaders approach heritage files and try to deal with eyesores like Somerset House speaks volumes about their priorities for preserving Ottawa’s past.
Heritage consideration should always be at the forefront of decisions made at city hall, says Rideau-Goulbourn Coun. Scott Moffatt.
“It tells the story of our past,” said Moffatt, a member of the built-heritage subcommittee since its inception in 2012. “It’s really important to know what’s come before us.”
The committee includes three citizens with significant expertise on heritage matters.
Committee chairman Tobi Nussbaum characterizes the city’s approach to heritage as one of carrots and sticks.
Choosing to play a more robust enforcement role to protect heritage properties that haven’t been kept up is the stick. Providing greater incentives to owners of heritage properties to main- tain and even improve them is the carrot.
“If we’re going to get serious about the carrot side of the heritage equation, we need to find more financial mechanisms to incentivize people to do the right thing with heritage buildings,” he said.
But unlike Watson, Nussbaum said he’s not against exploring the option of expropriation to ensure certain high-profile properties don’t continue to be the blights they are when owners fail year after year after year to do the right thing.
“When building owners have had many, many opportunities over many, many years, I probably instinctively think, chances are running out,” he said.
Compelled by the slow-motion deterioration of Somerset House, Watson created a special task force in 2016 to monitor heritage properties regularly and formalize the working relationship of city officials from the bylaw and planning departments. The task force has met just four times (though official minutes were taken at only two of the meetings), and it will reconvene in September. The mayor and others suggest, however, it isn’t an example of good intentions but little action.
Since the task force’s inception, the city has created a watch list of about two dozen vacant heritage properties, which a dedicated bylaw officer inspects quarterly. It has also undertaken a massive update to the city’s heritage register and cut a rebate landlords used to get for vacant buildings.
Yet there’s been no change to the funding envelope for heritage grants, which has remained at $150,000 since amalgamation, and there’s been no successful lobbying of the former provincial Liberal government to loosen the screws of any act that would give municipalities more authority to force owners to preserve and maintain properties to avoid the dreaded demolition-by-neglect.
“We’ll try with the new government,” Watson said. “I’m not going to say this is going to be a high priority on their list.”
As for those heritage grants for building restoration, the maximum available from the city is $5,000 (on a matching basis). Using the example of replacing heritage windows, Watson admitted the money doesn’t go very far.
“You’re going to blow $5,000 on one window, so we have to look at what we can do to increase that amount,” he said.
But why, as mayor and budget chief, hasn’t he done so sooner?
“Budgets are always about competing interests,” Watson said. “This never came to the top of the list, plain and simple.”
The task force is developing a pitch for expanded funding, which the mayor’s office and council could consider during the drafting of the 2019 budget.
One idea up for consideration is waiving the $3,060 development application fee for applications that are ultimately decided by council, but keeping in place the same fee for those seeking permission to demolish a heritage building. Ottawa is also looking to other Ontario cities for inspiration.
Given the timing, one expects a heritage plank could form part of Watson’s re-election pitch to voters.
“When you see my campaign platform you’ll know whether it made it in or not,” the mayor demurred.
Catherine Lindquist is hopeful. The executive director of the Council of Heritage Organizations of Ottawa wants the next council to make culture, including heritage, one of its key priorities.
“We have so many great assets,” she said. “We have a lot that we want to protect and advance.”
Budgets are always about competing interests. This never came to the top of the list, plain and simple.