Annual Report

From
David B. Flemming
President, Heritage Ottawa

T o

The 2003 Annual General Meeting,
Rockcliffe Park Recreation Centre
Thursday, May 29, 2003

Good evening and welcome to the Annual General Meeting of Heritage Ottawa - the 30th since the establishment of the society in 1974. My name is David Flemming and I have been your President since last October 1 when I was selected by the Board to complete Carolyn Quinn’s term of office as President on the occasion of her resignation from the position after serving the society diligently for over five years.

The past year has been marked by internal change within the society with the tabling of a re-organizational plan; by significant changes at the municipal level with the development of a new Official Plan and an Arts and Heritage Plan; and by a number of important advocacy cases.

After assuming the position of Vice President at last year’s Annual General Meeting, I drew up a re-organization plan which sought to address the lack of participation by the general membership in the society’s day to day activities through the strengthening of our various committees, many of which have been inactive for many years. In August, the Board approved the implementation of the plan however this was postponed in October when I accepted the duties of President. The implementation of this plan and the preparation of a Strategic Plan will be the main challenges of the new Board of Directors which you will appoint this evening.

An important part of the Strategic Plan will be to substantially increase the number of members in Heritage Ottawa. Our current membership is about 150, a far cry from the 450+ members of 25 years ago. It is not only important for us to increase our membership but also to attract new members from the former municipalities which now form part of the amalgamated City of Ottawa.

The creation of the new City of Ottawa in 2001 led to the development of a number of new plans, two of which - the Official Plan and the Arts and Heritage Plan - have particular relevance to our City’s built heritage resources. The response to the first draft of the Official Plan was drawn up by Barbara McMullen, our current Secretary, and by Board member Ron Stein. Ron unfortunately resigned from the Board late last year and was unable to continue to work on the Plan. Your Board spent many hours responding to the three subsequent drafts of the Official Plan and the three drafts of the Arts and Heritage Plan. I presented our comments in both written form and in-person before the Planning and Development Committee on four occasions. I am pleased to inform you that the final versions of both documents contain some recommendations suggested by Heritage Ottawa and that both documents provide a sound basis for the preservation of our community’s heritage.

One thing that is not contained in the plans is the political will to act upon them in the preservation of our built heritage. The many advocacy issues which we have dealt with over the past year reflect a City Council that is not prepared to “stand up for heritage” despite what they may approve in official documents. There are few champions of heritage on the current Council. The loss of the two buildings in the Nicholas-Waller-Laurier triangle last November is a good example of this inaction. The City refused to take any decisive action such as placing a stop work order on the new building being erected by Groupe Lépine and six months later we still do not know what action the City are taking against the developer. Likewise, the Caplan building, one of the last fine examples of Ottawa’s 19th century retail built heritage was lost not because of the neglect of the owner or even by the edict of the Fire Marshall. It was lost because our Councillors did not have the political will to save it. Heritage Ottawa spoke loudly on these two issues but the response of our elected representatives, with a few exceptions, was non-existent.

Besides these two issues, Heritage Ottawa has been supporting the Centretown community in opposing the Ashcroft Homes proposals for large buildings on Gilmour and McLeod Streets. In these instances, the developer continues to submit proposals that are completely out of scale for the existing zoning. We are also closely monitoring the situation with Grant House (Friday’s Roast Beef House) on Elgin Street and the Old Registry Office on Nicholas Street. Both are designated heritage buildings and are located on sites which are ripe for development. We continue to follow with great interest the National Capital Commission’s on-again/off-again plans Sparks Street, the proposal know as “Metcalfe Lite.” Heritage Ottawa members are kept up to date on these issues through articles in our Newsletter.

As I noted previously, most of our municipal politicians seem to lack the political will to make the necessary decisions to protect our built heritage. With this year’s municipal election, we do have the opportunity to challenge candidates on their position on heritage preservation. One of the first jobs of your new Board will be to devise strategies to challenge candidates for municipal office on their position on heritage preservation. For this, we will need the help of the general membership.

Besides speaking at Planning and Development Committee meetings and writing letters to the newspapers and to the Mayor and Council, your President and other members of the Board have spoken on radio and television on many heritage issues. We have had information booths at Heritage Day, Museums’ Day and Heritage Fair events and last weekend we adopted the Old Registry Building on Nicholas Street as part of Doors Open Ottawa in an effort to lobby for its retention. Your Past-President and I also served on the Organizing Committee of Doors Open Ottawa and other Board members continue to serve on the City’s Heritage Advisory Committee and the Ottawa LACAC. Heritage Ottawa had four representatives in the various Downtown Urban Design Strategy workshops and we again presented a brief at the National Capital Commission’s annual public meeting.

Thanks to the efforts of Board member John Arnold and his committee, we published 5000 copies of a new brochure. Jim Georgiles continues to singlehandedly produce the Newsletter and two editions have appeared since our last Annual General Meeting. With the help of a newly established editorial committee, the aim is to publish four issues in 2003.

Jennifer Rosebrugh organized our Walking Tours for 2002. The eight tours drew over 200 participants and raised over $2000 in much-needed revenue. Sussex Capital Inc. was the official sponsor for our tours and their generosity enabled us to produce a brochure promoting the tours. Thanks to the efforts of this year’s tour organizer, Louisa Coates, we shall offer a record 12 tours between June 8 and October 5. Sussex Capital have again agreed to be the official sponsor of these events. The promotional brochure should be available in early June but the complete listing is on our website and will appear in the June issue of the Newsletter.

Barbara McMullen is preparing a terra cotta architecture walking tour guide to the Downtown which will be published in September thanks to the support of the Trillium Foundation which awarded us a grant of $9700. The guide will be publically “launched” in September and will be available for sale at a modest price.

Our webmaster and Board member, Peter O’Malley, has enhanced our website over the past year, including the establishment of an archives of the complete run of the Heritage Ottawa Newsletter dating back to 1974. These archived issues, contain over 600 pages of important information on the heritage movement in Ottawa over the past three decades. It will serve as an educational tool for those interested in the study of our built heritage and will be of interest to the public as well. We are the first heritage organization in Canada in Canada to archive our publications in this manner. A search engine is being developed for the archived information which will further enhance its usefulness.

There is much to be done but Heritage Ottawa needs the active support and involvement of more members. At the registration table there are lists of the various committees with their duties and space for members to sign-up. I urge you to do so. We really need your help.

I want to thank each of the members of the current Board for their help throughout the year, especially our Past-President, Carolyn Quinn for all of her efforts over the past six years and for the help that she has given to me since I assumed the presidency eight months ago. A special thanks to our only “employee” Jennifer Jimmo, for her efforts above and beyond the call of duty. There are few employees with the devotion to stick with a job when the employer can usually only pay her for five or six days of work per month.

We could not continue to operate without the financial assistance of the City of Ottawa’s Heritage Department which provides us with an operating grant every year. This year we received $10,600. If we want to increase this however, we must have a strategic plan developed before the end of the year. The Ontario Ministry of Culture also provided us with a grant of $1,035.

And finally thanks to you, the members. Your Board appreciates and needs your ongoing support. I hope you many of you will get more involved in the activities of Heritage Ottawa in the upcoming year.

Thank you for your attention.

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