Tools for individuals, municipalities and communities
Our inheritance of architecture, cultural landscapes, and material culture is an irreplaceable asset and resource. In Ontario, the task of conserving our inheritance of historically and architecturally significant properties is primarily a municipal matter. The Ontario Heritage Act provides a framework within which municipalities can ensure the conservation of properties of cultural heritage value or interest.
The Ontario Heritage Toolkit is a series of written booklets. These booklets are guides to help municipal Councils, municipal staff, Municipal Heritage Committees, land use planners, heritage professionals, heritage organizations, property owners, and others understand the heritage conservation process in Ontario. They explain the Ontario Heritage Act, the Planning Act, and related programs.
The Ontario Heritage Act encourages local citizen participation in heritage conservation. It authorizes the council of a municipality to create a by-law that establishes a municipal heritage committee. Municipal heritage committees, comprised of local citizens who serve their community as volunteers, advise municipal councils and residents on local heritage matters and help municipalities carry out their heritage conservation programs. They are legitimate vehicles for coordinating and conveying community concerns.
- How municipalities set up and work with municipal heritage committees
- What a municipal heritage committee does
- Sample municipal heritage committee by-law
- Contact Ontario's Municipal Heritage Committees.
Supporting heritage in your community
This ministry has created a presentation that can help your municipal heritage committee or local heritage organizations make the case for supporting heritage in your community. It includes:
- Tips and Hints for Giving the Presentation
- Supporting Heritage Slides
- Main Presentation Speaker Notes
- Supporting Heritage Supplemental Slides
- Supplemental Slides Speaker Notes
Heritage property tax relief and sample agreements
- Heritage Property Tax Relief Measure
- Section 365.2 of the Municipal Act, 2001
- Example of a Heritage Conservation Agreement
- Example of a Municipal Easement Agreement
- Ontario Heritage Trust Conservation Easement Program
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Ontario Heritage Act, Part IV: Provincial Powers to Conserve Property of Cultural Heritage Value or Interest of Provincial Significance
- Why designate?
- The Municipal Register of Heritage Properties
- Municipal Financial Incentives for Heritage Properties
- Insurance and Heritage Properties
- Heritage Conservation Principles for Land Use Planning
- Investing in Heritage: Municipal Tax Back Grants
- Eight Guiding Principles in the Conservation of Built Heritage Properties
- Criteria for Evaluating Potential for Built Heritage and Cultural Heritage Landscapes: A Checklist for the Non-Specialist
- Strengthening Ontario's Heritage: Identify, Protect, Promote
- Landscapes of Memories - A Guide for Conserving Historic Cemeteries: Repairing Tombstones
- Heritage organizations and historical societies
