By Kathryn Carlson
The Ontario government wants to protect the province’s heritage churches but says it doesn’t have the money to help cover the cost.
The government plans to pass controversial legislation to protect some of Ontario’s churches as heritage sites despite concerns that the churches themselves would have to bear the costs of complying with the act.
The proposed bill would give municipalities the power to decide which churches would be considered heritage buildings and would also give them the right to deny demolition permits for these designated historic buildings.
Guy Lepage, spokesperson for Culture Minister Madeleine Meilleur, says the government simply doesn’t have the money to contribute to the maintenance of the buildings.
“We have a huge deficit that we’re dealing with and we just don’t have the coin,” says Lepage.
Some of Ontario’s church representatives that would be affected by the proposed legislation say they don’t necessarily have the money either.
“Churches are not treated like museums,” Rev. Garth Bulmer says.
“They’re not maintained by public funds and some churches just might not have the finances,” Bulmer, rector of St. John’s The Evangelist Anglican Church on Elgin Street, says.
“We have a large congregation and our building is well-maintained, but that’s not the case for many of Ontario’s churches.” he says.
Canon William Fairlie, rector at Christ Church Anglican Cathedral on Sparks Street, is also concerned with the financial burden that rests on the shoulders of his congregation and wants the provincial government to at least pitch in.
“There’s a huge demand being made on us and there’s absolutely no help being offered by the province,” says Fairlie.
“This is a very one-sided bill and certainly there should be some help with the expensive task of preserving buildings like ours.”
The Quebec government does, however, offer financial support to its churches and is far ahead of Ontario in its approach to heritage legislation.
About ten years ago, The Quebec Religious Heritage Foundation was founded and through it the provincial government has been able to contribute millions to the maintenance of heritage buildings of all religious denominations.
“We can see right across the river to Quebec and it’s very disheartening to see what’s going on there as compared to what’s going to happen here,” says Fairlie.
But Catherine Nasmith, vice-president of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, wants the delays to end and the bill to go ahead quickly so that Ontario’s churches can be protected sooner rather than later.
“I don’t see why the financial situation of a church should translate into the loss of amazing historical buildings. While people are off quibbling about the bill, we’re losing heritage buildings,” says Nasmith.
Lepage says although there is some opposition to the bill, almost everyone involved wants to see the churches maintained as heritage sites.
“There might be some people concerned with some of the details in the bill, but everyone seems to agree that the idea behind the heritage legislation is great.
People agree that we cannot stand by helplessly and watch these buildings fall down,” says Lepage.
The provincial government plans to move forward with a third reading of the bill sometime this month.