Heritage groups are criticizing what some see as a political takeover of the committee that advises city council on heritage issues.
Ottawa city council voted in late August to replace four of the seven public members of Ottawa Build heritage advisory committee with councillors, putting the remaining public members in the minority.
The change in the committee was part of a restructuring of the city’s advisory committees that saw 15 such groups cut to five.
“This advisory committee is a useful opportunity for citizen input into heritage issues,” says Leslie Maitland, president of the independent group Heritage Ottawa.
“If the councillors outnumber the citizens it amounts to councillors providing information to councillors. There’s a diminishing of public input.”
The decision, which also changes the heritage committee’s status to a sub-committee, was opposed by the committee itself prior to the decision.
At a meeting in early September, the committee called on city council to keep a majority of public members.
The members also discussed the possibility of resigning over the issue.
Coun. Peter Hume, chairman of the planning committee, to which the new heritage sub-committee will report, declined to be interviewed about the issue.
But in an earlier interview with the Ottawa Citizen he said that filling the committee with councillors is a way to make it more important.
According to Maitland, however, the committee has recently clashed with councillors and city staff over projects including Lansdowne Park and the proposed demolition of heritage homes on Sussex Drive.
“The councillors weren’t appreciating how often they were on the same page. They only heard about the controversial issues,” she says.
“I think they have the idea that if the councillors run this sub-committee, we won’t have these controversies. But they are not going to go away.”
With the new structure, Ottawa will be the only major municipality in Ontario with a majority of councillors on a heritage committee.
According to Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport guidelines, municipal heritage committees are supposed to be made up “primarily of volunteer citizens,” while one or two councillors can be added to “maintain lines of communication.”
Ministry spokesperson Denelle Balfour said in an email that the Ottawa decision isn’t violating Ontario provincial law.
“Ultimately, it is the decision of a municipal council to establish a committee and appoint its members,” she wrote.
The opportunity for city councils to choose councillors over members of the public is a concern to Roscoe Petkovic, president of Community Heritage Ontario, an umbrella organization for heritage committees in Ontario.
“Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about it,” he says.
Petkovic says that, in a sense, “it is frustrating that we don’t have the legal tools to smack them on the wrist.”
He fears a majority of councillors can lead to heritage issues not being prioritized in Ottawa.
“Citizens tend to look at life more personally and focus on the environment’s impact on the quality of life,” he says.
“Politicians don’t tend to think like that.”