The Historic Places Initiative in a Rural Context

With its launch in 2001, the Historic Places Initiative aimed to transform the discourse around heritage conservation in Canada — whether of historic buildings or cultural landscapes — and to put to rest the perception that heritage conservation was a backward-looking and antiquated concept. The Historic Places Initiative is a rare model of a shared federal–provincial–territorial partnership. Furthermore, by acknowledging that all levels of government and all Canadians share responsibility for the management of heritage resources, Historic Places Initiative has changed the profile of heritage conservation and awakened support within public and private sectors.

At the heart of the Historic Places Initiative is the Canadian Register of Historic Places (CRHP), the first Canadian online registry that catalogues all historic places designated by federal, provincial, territorial, or municipal jurisdictions. The Canadian Register collects information about designated historic properties and communicates how local communities understand and value their heritage. In order for a historic property to be listed on the Canadian Register, a Statement of Significance (SoS) is required. This narrative profile provides a description, the heritage value and character defining elements for each historic place.

However, this national register is not an end in itself. The Canadian Register aims to raise the profile of heritage on the local and national stage and then harness this awareness to achieve two long-term goals:

1. Build heritage stewardship capacity in local communities;
2. Engage all sectors in the conservation of these places

The Canadian Register served as the Rideau Heritage Initiative pilot project’s centre-piece.

The Rideau Heritage Initiative: A Case Study

In 2006, spurred by the 175th anniversary of the Rideau Canal and its UNESCO World Heritage nomination, the Ontario Ministry of Culture’s (MCL) Historic Places Initiative and Carleton University’s School of Canadian Studies collaborated on a ground breaking four-month summer pilot project. This pilot project, the Rideau Heritage Initiative, was implemented by a team of six Canadian Studies graduate students — Stephen Irving, Andrew Jeanes, Francesco Manganiello, Ha Nguyen, Rebecca Sciarra, and Christopher Wiebe — with Professor Herb Stovel as technical supervisor.

The purpose of the Rideau Heritage Initiative was to facilitate the work of the Historic Places Initiative in 12 municipalities of the Rideau Canal Corridor: Ottawa, Kingston, Perth, North Grenville, Rideau Lakes, Merrickville, Smiths Falls, Westport, South Frontenac, Montague, Drummond-North Elmsley, and Tay Valley. All of these municipalities, except for Kingston and Ottawa, are considered “rural” by Statistics Canada. The primary goal was to help these communities nominate their heritage properties to the Canadian Register and to help build their heritage management capacity, where appropriate.

With a research area strung over 202 km, the Rideau Heritage Initiative team worked with over 50 community members — councilors, municipal staff, heritage planners, property owners, local historians, residents and volunteers — to craft Statements of Significance and subsequently nominate 137 municipally designated heritage properties to the Canadian Register. The team also visited municipal councils, Municipal Heritage Committees (MHCs), historical societies, town halls and community centres to raise awareness and provide support for heritage stewardship. On average, the team collectively spent over 440 hours in these communities, largely dictated by the availability of identified community members, and the needs and opportunities for building community capacity in heritage stewardship.

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