2025 Campaign: Housing-focused Heritage Building Grant
BRANCH: Provincial Office
TYPE: Member Documents
DATE: February 7, 2025
AUTHOR: ACO
The huge potential of Ontario’s older buildings for housing solutions
Last year, ACO mounted a successful campaign that led to a two-year extension of the time frame for designating buildings on municipal heritage lists.
This year’s campaign addresses the housing crisis and how buildings we value – through thoughtful adaptive reuse and careful renovation – can provide needed housing units. The campaign also focuses on using Canadian resources – labour and materials – to provide for a more sustainable future. A Canada First approach!
The “ask” is simple: $10M/yr in matching funds for adaptive reuse and renovation that creates more housing.
A TWO-PART CAMPAIGN
There are two parts to the campaign – pre-election discussions with those running for provincial parliament – and post-election discussions with those elected as MPPs.
HOW YOU CAN BE INVOLVED
For the first part of the campaign, you can talk with those running for provincial parliament in your riding. ACO will provide all the information you will need, including a training session (contact alex@acontario.ca for more information).
Here is a possible question for candidates, whether at your door or at an all candidates meeting:
"Given that
- we desperately need more housing
- renovation creates more jobs, is more labour intensive, than new construction
- renovating an existing building means we don't have to create new streets and other infrastructure
Will you push for a grant to turn underused existing buildings, including heritage buildings, into housing?"
For the second part of the campaign, you can talk with the elected MPP in your riding. ACO will also provide the information you will need. (Details to follow after the election.) You can also promote the campaign more widely in your community – ACO will have more suggestions for tactics here too.
TRAINING SESSION
On Thursday, February 13, ACO held an information session on the campaign. CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO
NEXT STEPS
Decide to be part of the campaign and indicate your participation to Alex MacKinnon (alex@acontario.ca). Then contact those running in your riding, set up a time to talk – or offer to send information about the “ask.” Report back to Alex re: your contact(s) and actions as this information will feed into the post-election part of the campaign.
CALL TO ACTION
We are counting on ACO members – and our cultural heritage friends – to make our CAMPAIGN 2025 a success. Our “ask” responds to all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
For questions about the campaign, please contact:
Dan Schneider, ACO Policy Committee Chair - danschneider@live.ca
Deb Crawford, ACO Chair - president@acontario.ca
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ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTS: (Adobe PDFs)
February 7, 2025
