A parliamentary petition backed by Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi is calling on Ottawa to spend money to permanently preserve Canada's national registry of historic places amid concerns Parks Canada is preparing to shut down the online database.Blacklock's Reporter says the petition urges the federal government to transfer responsibility for the Canadian Register of Historic Places to the National Trust for Canada and provide a one-time endowment to modernize and permanently maintain the database.Supporters argue the registry is the country's only comprehensive, searchable record of more than 13,500 historic sites recognized by federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments."Canada's historic places from indigenous landscapes and lighthouses to the homes, workplaces and public spaces of past and future Canadians embody our shared stories, national identity, institutions and traditions and deserve to be preserved for generations to come," the petition states.The petition, identified as E-7594, was authored by the National Trust's chief executive officer. While it requests federal funding to secure the database's future, it does not specify how much money would be required.According to the petition, Parks Canada has withdrawn from operating the register, leaving it at risk of being permanently decommissioned."The federal government has stepped back from hosting and operating the Register and it now faces imminent decommissioning," the petition states.It warns eliminating the registry would break up a nationally significant collection of heritage information and remove public access to a widely used research tool.."The Canadian Register of Historic Places is the only pan-Canadian, publicly accessible record of more than 13,500 historic places recognized by federal, provincial, territorial and municipal authorities," the petition says, adding the database is relied upon by planners, architects, developers, educators and the public.Earlier this year, Toronto-based Shift Media Strategies republished the registry on its Heritage Guide Canada website as a free public service after concerns emerged about its future.Parks Canada has not publicly explained why it plans to discontinue the online register.The move follows earlier federal decisions to scale back heritage programs.In 2017, Parks Canada cited funding constraints when it ended future acquisitions of historic properties. The agency currently manages dozens of national historic sites, including 35 forts and the former homes of figures such as Alexander Graham Bell, Norman Bethune and Sir John A. Macdonald.The federal government also discontinued the Commercial Heritage Properties Incentive Fund in 2007 after spending $14.95 million on 35 restoration projects. The program had offered grants of up to $1 million to restore heritage buildings, including mills, factories and fire halls.A decade later, Conservative MP Peter Van Loan unsuccessfully proposed a federal tax credit to encourage private owners to restore historic buildings.His private member's Bill C-323 would have created a 20% tax credit for eligible restoration projects, but it was defeated in the House of Commons in 2017.At the time, Van Loan lamented the loss of heritage buildings across the country."You look at what we've lost and you almost want to cry," he said.The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated the proposed tax credit would have cost taxpayers up to $67 million annually.
