HCNT Responds to 2014 Federal Budget
Heritage Canada The National Trust Responds to 2014 Federal Budget
Ottawa, ON February 12, 2014 -- Although no funding was allocated to 2017 celebrations in today’s Federal Budget, Heritage Canada The National Trust is hopeful that eventual funding will include investment in the regeneration of historic places that matter to Canadians.
HCNT is also hopeful that some of the $391.5 million for Parks Canada, earmarked for improvements to highways, bridges and dams in national parks and along historic canals, will be invested in the agency’s 158 historic sites – iconic places such as the Fortress of Louisbourg, Carillon Canal, and Grosse Île, reported to be in poor to very poor condition.
Budget documents are silent on Parks Canada’s National Historic Sites Cost-Sharing Program, which in recent years has provided modest yet much-needed bricks-and-mortar investment in National Historic Sites not in federal ownership, and do not confirm proposed seed funding to ease lighthouses declared ‘surplus’ by the Federal Government into the hands of local groups. Many of these places are touchstones with the historic events and people who shaped our nation.
“Historic places are an excellent springboard for 2017 celebrations,” said HCNT’s Executive Director Natalie Bull, speaking from Ottawa. “Investing in historic places stimulates local economies, creates jobs, revitalizes communities, and attracts cultural tourists. But there is an urgent need for seed funding that would attract matching investment in regeneration projects from donors and sponsors.”
HCNT applauds the budget’s enhancement of the Ecological Gifts Program, which provides attractive tax benefits to Canadians for the protection of natural areas, and the Certified Cultural Property Program, which does the same for donations of art and artifacts. For many years HCNT has promoted comparable tax measures to encourage the protection of historic buildings.
To review the entire Budget 2014, please click here.
For further information
Carolyn Quinn, Director, Communications, cquinn@heritagecanada.org
Telephone: (613) 237-1066 ext. 229; Cell: (613) 797-7206
