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I have been putting off writing about Bill 66, the proposed Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act.^[1]

As OHA+M is a blog on heritage policy, it seemed impossible to ignore a major legislative foray by the new provincial government that could have major implications for Ontario’s cultural heritage protection regime and the resources it is designed to protect. The bill was introduced last December 6, the final day of the fall session.

Marcolongo Farm, Guelph: View of the bank barn from across the grassy meadow 
Photo courtesy Mike Marcolong​o

So how do you (successfully) designate a farm?

Farm scene near Bamberg, Ontario

Let’s continue our look at the protection of farms using heritage designation under Part IV of the OHA.

Illustration from Perth County Historical Atlas, 1879

Lights on the Sarnia Bridge reflected in the Thames River

The blog marks another milestone with this post. Welcome to OHA+M, edition 80!

I’m very happy to have a guest contributor to the CHLs discussion. Welcome Henry Cary!

Henry, a cultural heritage specialist and archaeologist with Golder Associates, takes a detailed look at the official guidance materials on cultural heritage landscapes in Ontario over the years and poses some hard questions about the application of current approaches to rural landscapes.

The Provincial Policy Statement, 2014 says:

2.6.1  Significant built heritage resources and significant cultural heritage landscapes shall be conserved.

Last time we looked at the evolution of the definition of cultural heritage landscapes, now in its third iteration. We did not look at the meaning of “significant.”

Main Street, Warkworth, Ontario

Earlier this year I was asked to name some of the key changes, actions or themes affecting heritage conservation in Ontario over the last generation or so.

We saw last time that the Conservation Review Board is one busy little tribunal these days. The website list of their active cases doesn’t reveal what kind of cases they are but I’d bet dollars to doughnuts they all have to do with objections to designation.

We all love statistics, especially when they’re moving in the right direction.