Bemoan our collective losses – please!

Last year, three heritage homes in Grand-Pre were torn down or packed off to foreign lands. This year, three old barns in the village have toppled and this week another heritage home will disappear into dumpsters.

I’m hardly the only one who is saddened watching the demolitions. Grand-Pre might have been Canada’s first rural historic district, but no designation will preserve its built heritage.

What is highly ironic is the current move to apply for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Last November councilor John Fuller, who represents the village, stated there was interest and support in the community. Whom did he poll?

There is no legislation in this province to prohibit the demolition of any structure, nor is there any significant monetary encouragement to preserve heritage buildings.

As John Whidden of the Kings-Hants Heritage Connection bemoans, “Canada in general, Nova Scotia to be more specific, and Kings County to be exact, don't really give a fig for heritage structures. Parks Canada buildings across the country (like Louisbourg) are falling down from lack of maintenance. The county is more interested in paving over farmland.”

Those in authority ought to do something because Grand-Pre isn’t the only community with issues. In Mahone Bay, town council keeps getting applications to deregister heritage properties.

Mayor Joe Feeney called it a serious matter when there are fewer than 20 heritage properties protected in the town and three owners wanted to opt out. "This is a big, big problem for us because it’s very difficult to protect the heritage and culture of the town when these properties are being deregistered," he said.

And small historical societies have been crying cash woes for years. The South Rawdon Museum had to close its doors in 2005 and the Kings County Museum in Kentville moved to seasonal operations two years ago after a couple of decades of being year-round.

It struck me that a divide-and-conquer mentality was operating in March when the province dished out $10,000 grants to 67 small museums “to help preserve and promote Nova Scotia's heritage.”

I figure the grants were designed to button up further protest.

Last November’s first-ever heritage strategy outlined three directions: better co-ordination; sustainable development of heritage resources; and increasing public recognition of heritage.

In the first year, the province has promised it will discuss forming a heritage council, develop an interpretive master plan for museums, review the Nova Scotia Museum system, the 28-year-old Heritage Property Act and the practice of underwater treasure-hunting.

I agree with Kings County Museum curator Bria Stokesbury that what’s needed is a stronger voice and more resources for heritage. Perhaps a provincial Advisory Council on Heritage Property would help reduce the number of demolitions.

More people bemoaning our collective losses wouldn’t hurt, either. Cripes, folks in Wolfville can still work up tears over the 1970 federal decision to take down the old post office because it wasn’t necessary. “We are still are in a crisis,” Stokesbury says truthfully and wisely, “and we’ll never please everybody.” But couldn’t we just prevent a few more fine, old buildings from going down, especially if we’re going for world heritage status?