What's New

Proposed Amendments to Ontario Heritage Act

The Ontario Museum Association requested information on the proposed legislative changes to the Ontario Heritage Act and is pleased to share the following information from the Ministry of Culture.

On May 7, 2003, at the Ontario Heritage Centre, the Honourable David H. Tsubouchi, Minister of Culture, his Parliamentary Assistant, Julia Munro, and Deputy Minister of Culture, Terry Smith, reported back to stakeholders on the Ontario Heritage Act consultations undertaken recently.

The consultations were launched by the Minister of Culture in November 2002 and were led by the Parliamentary Assistant. The consultations benefited greatly from the participation of the Ontario Heritage Foundation and Conservation Review Board.

Input was sought from diverse heritage organizations, municipalities, developers, property owners, the real estate industry, First Nations, and about twenty other ministries and agencies. Ninety-five written briefs were also received and reviewed.

The following key messages consolidate the information received:

• Municipalities should be given the power to prevent demolition of designated heritage buildings and should be able to attach terms and conditions to demolition approval (e.g. recording and documenting the property).



• To balance stronger demolition controls, property owners should be given a right of appeal to a binding decision-making body, such as the Ontario Municipal Board.



• The Minister of Culture should have the power to designate cultural heritage property of provincial significance and to order the short-term protection of heritage property where threatened (e.g. in cases where all other options have been exhausted).



• The Province should develop standards and guidelines to identify and protect its own provincially significant heritage properties.



• The Province should have the power to protect the most significant marine heritage sites by prohibiting access to these sites without a site-specific licence.



• A number of changes should be made to improve the municipal designation process, including: developing standard designation criteria in consultation with stakeholders; enabling municipalities to prescribe and enforce minimum maintenance standards for designated heritage properties; enabling municipalities to delegate to municipal staff approval powers for minor alterations; and requiring that public notice be given of all de-designation requests.



• Improvements should be made to the heritage conservation district provisions in the Act, including: requiring that districts have a plan and guidelines; extending alteration controls to cover property features, in addition to buildings and structures; allowing municipalities to exempt minor alterations from approval requirements, where provided for in the district plan; enabling municipalities to place interim controls on changes to areas identified for study as districts; and allowing property owners to appeal interim control bylaws to the Ontario Municipal Board.

A number of other changes were recommended to update the Ontario Heritage Foundation and Conservation Review Board sections of the Act. If you have questions or comments about changes to the Ontario Heritage Act, please call or write: Dan Schneider, Policy Advisor, Heritage and Libraries Branch (416) 314-7165