In the midst of all the construction of condos in the downtown core, the City of Ottawa plans to bring the focus back to its history.
This year’s Heritage Day will take place on Feb. 18 at city hall and following an address from Mayor Jim Watson, the public can enjoy the 45 informational displays put on by heritage organizations.
Attendees will be surrounded by costume characters of the past and a group of fiddlers will provide the music for this joyous occasion.
This year’s theme is “Historical Places Made for Play” and Ottawa is placing special emphasis on the heritage areas it uses for recreational purposes such as the Rideau Canal.
The Rideau Canal was created in 1826 under the impression that the United States was planning to invade Canada through the St. Lawrence River. The canal was to be a secure route of communication and supply between Montreal and a British naval base in Kingston.
Its initial purposes shifted after military engagements ended between the United States and Canada. The canal officially opened for skating in 1971 and has become a major highlight of winter in Ottawa ever since.
It became an official UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007. While the Rideau Canal is an example of heritage being protected, Ottawa has mainly struggled with doing so in the past.
“There’s a particular problem the city has been addressing and Heritage Ottawa has been pushing them for doing,” says David Flemming, past president of Heritage Ottawa. “It’s called demolition by neglect.”
Flemming explains this is when an older building is purchased with the intent to resell it to a developer. The building is boarded up and left to deteriorate to a point where it is no longer safe. This allows developers to demolish it and build something new without having to face accusations of destroying heritage.
With a lot of old, boarded up buildings, Centretown is a particularly vulnerable area. Ottawa had delayed passing bylaws in the past that would allow the city to get involved and stabilize buildings that appear to be neglected.
“The city has started about a year ago to address this and put work orders against people who do this kind of thing,” says Flemming. “This was a proposal we have made them five years ago so we are pleased to see them finally moving on it.”
Heritage Day in Ottawa will celebrate the successes it has had in preserving heritage. This year’s theme wants to show that heritage sites can be fun and shouldn’t be viewed as untouchable.
“(Heritage) should be protected but not to a point that it becomes sacred and unusable,” says Paulina Abarca-Cantin, executive director of the Council of Heritage Organizations in Ottawa. “It’s heritage because it doesn’t die and is carried forward through the line.”
With the Rink of Dreams open for its second year, Abarca-Cantin suggests that perhaps one day in the future it may become a heritage site.
“This is what we do in Canada,” says Abarca-Cantin. “This is our heritage. We play in the winter. We embrace it. And this is another way for newcomers into our country and into our city to learn that that is what we do in the winter.”