The Heritage Committee has drafted a council resolution, something that I would have thought was outside the committee’s mandate. It seems ironic that residents are expected to comply with the rules, including the more restrictive Procedural By-law, but provincial rules are sometimes met with objections from the town.

April 10, 2024 Council Agenda iincludes: 17.1 Heritage Committee Meeting Minutes – March 21, 2024

• The Heritage Committee recommends that:
• The following Council Resolution BE ADOPTED and BE CIRCULATED as appropriate:

WHEREAS Subsection 27(16) of the Ontario Heritage Act stipulates that any non-designated heritage property listed on the municipal register of properties as of December 31, 2022 shall be removed from the municipal register on or before January 1, 2025, if the Council of the municipality does not give a notice of intention to designate the property under subsection 29(1) of the Ontario Heritage Act on or before January 1, 2025.

WHEREAS Since January 1, 2023, municipal staff and members of the municipal heritage committee in this municipality have been diligently working to: review the municipal heritage register; research the heritage value and interest of listed (non-designated) properties; review and research the heritage value and interest of non-designated properties; contact owners of such properties; determine which properties should potentially be designated in accordance with the provision of Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act; and take all required steps to designate such properties; and

WHEREAS the above-noted work involving 125 listed properties in this municipality is extremely time consuming and cannot be completed by December 31, 2024 with the limited municipal resources available.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

This Council authorize Administration to send a letter to Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, and Michael Ford, Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism, requesting that Subsection 27(16) of the Ontario Heritage Act be amended to extend the above-noted deadline for five years from January 1, 2025 to January 1, 2030.

The Town of Amherstburg already requested two extension requests for the legislated website accessibility compliance deadline.