Proud of Niagara’s heritage

Thank you Jonathan Webb for your excellent article in The Standard Feb. 11 – “Uphill battle to preserve Niagara heritage”. The same day Dennis Gannon did an excellent article entitled “Buildings come and buildings go”.

I am one of those volunteers on heritage committees that Jonathan mentions – committees which really have no teeth since they are only advisory to their municipalities. The big problem is lack of support from the Provincial and Federal governments who say they want to save our built heritage, but do nothing to back those words. We have a weak Ontario Heritage Act and no one appointed at the provincial level who oversees heritage. Oh yes, we have a Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport – but the word heritage is buried in culture – a word that is misunderstood and that covers a multitude of facets in our society! We have only one Ontario Heritage Conference each year and the Minister never feels it is important enough to attend; begging him six months in advance doesn’t work. It was a few short years ago that the long-standing Heritage Day was entirely eradicated from the February calendar by the province, and replaced with Family Day.

We are all stewards of the built heritage in our communities that gives them their character and uniqueness; those destinations are muchloved by tourists. I have been doing this work for nearly 30 years, it is no easier now than it was 30 years ago. Heritage really is in the hands of our passionate volunteers; if they gave up, and some already have, the preservation movement would entirely fall apart.