On Tuesday February 22, representatives of Ottawa's heritage organizations and municipal museums will gather at City Hall for the annual Heritage Day display and reception. This event is will celebrate Ottawa's civic heritage and those who contribute to its well-being either as heritage professionals or as volunteers. The Mayor will deliver the Heritage Day proclamation and those in attendance will be able to view the displays and share some refreshments.

Heritage Ottawa, the City's volunteer organization for advocating for the preservation of our built heritage will be represented at both the reception and the Ottawa Architectural Conservation Awards later in the day.

Ottawa is fortunate to have 16 heritage conservation districts and over 300 individual properties designated under the Ontario Heritage Act. Designations of properties under the Act are proposed by the owners, the City or sometimes by community associations. A staff report prepared by the City's Heritage Planning Division is then reviewed for recommendation by the Ottawa Built Heritage Advisory Committee and the Planning Committee of City Council and is considered for approval by City Council.

Heritage designation usually protects a property from demolition or relocation as well as from renovation or additions that are not consistent with the statement of designation. City Council's role is to safeguard these properties by enforcing appropriate by-laws and regulations relating to their proper care.

In November 2010, the outgoing City Council passed a motion that seemed to be contrary to their responsibility for safeguarding our built heritage. Council voted to repeal the heritage designation by-law for the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne Park, a Francis C. Sullivan designed permanent exhibition hall built in 1914 which was initially designated as "one of Canada's earliest expressions of modernism, it significantly contributes to the history of Canadian architecture". (Designation By-law 8-94, Schedule B).

This decision was one of many made by the outgoing council relating to the development of Lansdowne Park but is unique in that it involves a municipality repealing a heritage designation that it had initially approved, for a building that it owns and for which it is responsible to preserve under the conditions of the Ontario Heritage Act. The main reason for repealing the heritage designation is to permit the building's relocation (at a cost of at least $3 million to the taxpayers of Ottawa) so that the property can be developed for commercial purposes as part of the Lansdowne Partnership Plan.

According to provincial, national and international standards and guidelines for the conservation of heritage properties, relocation of a heritage building is only considered as a last resort for preserving a building in the rare case when it is in physical danger from causes such as erosion or other environmental damage. This is not the case with the Horticulture Building. How can the City expect other property owners to abide by the terms and conditions of a heritage designation when our own City Council appears to ignore them?

If Mayor Watson really wants to "celebrate" our City's heritage on Tuesday, perhaps he, who as a rookie City Councillor was instrumental in 1992 in saving the Aberdeen Pavilion from demolition (also on an order by a previous Council), can announce that he will propose a motion rescinding the decision to repeal the heritage by-law and instruct those involved in the Lansdowne Partnership Plan to permit the building to be preserved in situ, unencumbered and put to a use in keeping with the reasons for designation.

This would be a real reason for those concerned with the City's built heritage to celebrate! How about it Mayor Watson?

David Flemming
President, Heritage Ottawa