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Heritage Conservation as Climate Action

Exciting Advances from the UNEP Buildings and Climate Global Forum (Paris, March 7 & 8, 2024) The powerful role culture…

Code Red: Heritage Conservation’s Contribution to the Housing Crisis

The heritage warning lights are flashing, the alarm bells ringing. The housing crisis and the need for affordable, inclusive, and…

24 Sussex: From National Treasure to National Travesty

It was a cold February night, the kind of Canadian cold where you want to stay inside and curl up…

Representing Queer Histories through the National Trust’s Historic Places Days

The summer of 2023 marked the seventh year of the National Trust’s Historic Places Days (HPD), a platform for individuals…

The 2023 Heritage “Naughty or Nice” List

While every year feels consequential , 2023 seemed to pack a lot of change, good efforts, and bad outcomes into…

Heritage on the Hotseat

Earlier this year a polling firm surveyed 1,000 Canadians across the country about their views on heritage places and the…

How Heritage Matters: Two Questions, Ten Takes

It’s our 50th anniversary year, and conversations about ‘resetting heritage conservation’ are dominating the airwaves. As part of the Heritage…

What is a green audit?

Delivering Green Audits – Faith & the Common Good with the National Trust for Canada, part of the Trust’s People,…

UNDRIP and Indigenous Heritage: Pathways to Implementation

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was identified in the report of the Truth and…

Up for Renewal: Confronting the Insurance Industry’s Problem with Heritage Properties

When Frank Voisin, President of Kitchener, Ontario real estate development firm Voisin Capital Inc., went looking for insurance for one…

12 women leaders in heritage

Every year on March 8, International Women’s Day is observed all over the world to shine a light on the…

National Trust Worst Losses List 2021 – Part 2

With arson and wildfires, rising land values, industrial development and housing pressures taking their toll, it is a dangerous time…

Fight the Power: Transforming Cities Through a Revolution of Ideology, Imagination, & Values

Stephanie Allen delivered a riveting keynote at the APT – National Trust Conference in 2020 that traced how anti-Black racism…

National Trust Worst Losses List 2021 – Part 1

With arson and wildfires, rising land values, industrial development and housing pressures taking their toll, it is a dangerous time…

Snapshots of Heritage in 2021

As we look back on the past year, rocked by a global pandemic that touched every aspect of our world…

Supersized Heritage: The Unshakeable Allure and Uncertain Future of Canada’s Big Roadside Objects

As travelers cruise east from Edmonton on Alberta’s four-lane Yellowhead Highway, they soon have a monumental decision to make –…

A Culture of Care: Lessons from the Sustainable Textiles Movement

Increased global attention to climate change has led to sustainability being addressed through a multitude of lenses. Heritage conservation brings…

Protecting the Character of Traditional Neighbourhoods

Many of Canada’s traditional heritage neighbourhoods are facing pressure to increase density and accommodate a greater mix of housing options…

Indigenous Heritage Resources

In the spirit of Reconciliation and constructive action we are committed to sourcing, and sharing resources on Indigenous heritage and…

Hug a Tree, Hug a Building

On a cool, winter morning in 2011, in a dense, old-growth forest near Port Renfrew on southwest Vancouver Island, 48-year-old…

Making Obsolescence History: Confronting Barriers to Accelerate Building Reuse in Canada

When Natalie Voland, President of Quo Vadis- Gestion Immobilière in Montréal (a Certified B Corporation) approached mainstream banks about financing…

National Trust Staff Lockdown Picks: Fresh Books, Podcasts, and Social Media Accounts for the Heritage Enthusiast

We are, at the heart of it, all heritage enthusiasts here and always looking for new ways to learn about and share heritage in all of its…

Staff Picks: 8 Historic Homes We Love

Every home has a story to tell. Besides telling Canada’s collective story, historic homes serve as settings where our individual…

Place-keeping in Vancouver’s Chinatown: Reviving a Threatened Area with “Hot and Noisy” 熱鬧 Mahjong Nights and a Historic Cantonese School

In 2015, the historic Chinatown neighbourhood in Vancouver’s downtown eastside was at a tipping point. Surging development pressure threatened its…

Fostering Pride

Reading the headlines these days, it seems like we are destroying our heritage. Yet, it is hard to say what…

The Diversity Decade: How Heritage Is Spanning Differences in 2020

In January of 2020, without fanfare, the National Trust for England, Wales and Northern Ireland made a subtle change to…

Building strength – Heritage Trades in Canada

Successful conservation projects in Canada depend on the skilled craftspeople of the heritage trades. Historic places can’t survive without the…

Inuit House Brings Stories to Life

Several years ago, a team of archeologists uncovered the remains of a sod house, a traditional Inuit structure, near Iqaluit…

From Pandemic to Preservation: How SARS Kick-Started the Revitalization of Toronto’s Distillery District

The Distillery District may have become Toronto’s most iconic destination, but the catalyst for its rebirth took an unlikely twist…

Get out your virtual passport and celebrate World Heritage Day

April 18 is World Heritage Day – a perfect moment to discover wonderful heritage places that the world has to…

Toronto Epidemics: The Beginning

In 1832 the Town of York experienced an epidemic of cholera. In 1834, the year York was renamed Toronto, cholera…

5 examples exhibiting the vitality of the French language in Canada

Every year, on March 20th, the world celebrates International Francophonie Day. Following the celebrations that took place last month, we…

10 Heritage Leaders Who Just Happen to be Women

Every year on March 8, International Women’s Day is observed all over the world to shine a light on the…

Exploring the Black Canadian Legacy through Heritage Places

February is Black History Month and this presents an extraordinary opportunity to explore the legacy of Black Canadians through heritage…

Things We Lost in the Fire

As if recent record snowfalls and power outages weren’t challenging enough for people in Newfoundland, a devastating fire on Bell…

Historic sites use Halloween and ghost stories to attract visitors

Fulford Place in Brockville, Ontario offers a rare glimpse of the luxurious lifestyle of another era.  Built in 1899-1901, it…

Making Heritage Work in Rural Canada

At a time when rural communities across the country are facing many challenges, it is heartening to hear about historic…

Decoding the Decrepit: Seeing the Value in Abandoned Places

The amusement park closed for good over a decade ago, yet visitors flock to its steel skeletons every night.  Trinity…

Believer or skeptic? Ghost stories attract people to learn about local heritage

Spirits, specters and phantoms exist in the minds and experiences of millions of Canadians. The numerous tales surrounding these spiritual…

Winning Back Winnipeg: The History of Conservation in Manitoba’s Capital City

By Irene Galea & Cindy Tugwell With notes from David McDowell “Looking back at the organization of Heritage Winnipeg it…

Landmarks, not landfill

News reports say that about 1 million Canadians gathered across 85 locations in the country for the Climate Strike last…

Tracing a Site of ‘Difficult Heritage’

Documenting the Muskowekwan Indian Residential School In 2018 the National Trust for Canada featured the Muskowekwan Residential School as one…

5 Critical Factors Facing the Future of Heritage: A Perspective from a Young Heritage Professional

A few months ago, I was invited to Montreal to participate at the Round Table hosted by Christina Cameron, Canada’s…

Indigenous Architecture in Canada: A Step Towards Reconciliation

Architecture can contribute positively to social change. It was a missed opportunity, then, that there was no explicit mention of…

The social side of adaptive reuse

Typically, non-profit organizations offering community services such as shelter, meals and counselling set up shop in buildings that meet their…

Exploring the hidden past

Urban exploration sometimes gets a bad rap. Media reports frequently associate it with trespassing, graffiti and vandalism, and this has…

Cliffside Stories: How Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Feeds Today’s Generations

To Conrad Little Leaf of the Piikani Nation, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump near Fort Macleod, AB and its neighbouring foothills and…

Canada’s Historic Barns: Buildings at risk, buildings with value

Much of the story of our country is embedded within the posts and beams of old barns. They demonstrate the…

Honouring the Truth: the Physical Legacy of Canada’s Residential Schools

2017 promises to be an extraordinary year as Canada positively sizzles with national celebrations marking the 150th Anniversary of Confederation….

A Culture of Inertia

A story that profoundly touched me was told to us (siblings) by our mother, a childhood memory and one which…