The 2025 Heritage “Naughty or Nice” List
As 2025 draws to a close, National Trust staff can’t help tallying up who, from a heritage perspective, has been naughty or who has been nice. Who should receive a gift of thanks this holiday season, and who a proverbial lump of heritage coal? Cue the happy sad “Charlie Brown Christmas” music!
What follows is a non-exhaustive list of some of the highlights and lowlights from the past year. Naughty or nice thoughts of your own? We would love to hear them. Please send to info@nationaltrustcanada.ca and put “Naughty or Nice List” in the Subject Line!
Nice
A handful of feel-good stories from 2025, from West to East:
- Former Royal Alberta Museum (Edmonton, AB) – Hashtag NeverGiveUp! Endangered since 2016 and in the process of being demolished, Alberta heritage advocates have engineered a heritage comeback for the ages after convincing government officials to reopen RFPs on new uses. Stay-tuned for more info on its reinvention as a community recreation, arts, and business hub.
- Cyclorama de Jérusalem Reopens to Visitors (Ste Anne de Beaupré, QC) – Closed since 2018 and threatened with demolition, Canada’s only example of a 19th century painted circular panorama reopened to visitors again this past summer. For the heroes who snatched this singular work from the trash heap of oblivion, we hope – in the best tradition of a cyclorama – what goes around comes around.
- Sainte-Marie (Church Point, Nova Scotia) – North America’s largest wooden church has dodged imminent demolition thanks to inspiring work by Association Sainte-Marie héritage et développement. The Nova Scotia Government recently refused to remove its Provincial heritage designation, and essential repair work has begun on the steeple and leaking roof. Not sure the bells are ringing but somewhere an angel got his wings.
Naughty
2025 also featured a Santa sack of coal-dusted news:
- Devastating Cuts to Le Conseil du patrimoine religieux du Québec (CPRQ) – Launched in 1995, this globally renowned program (and 2022 National Trust Governors’ Award Winner) provided training, online resources, and funding for restoration and repurposing of the exceptional legacy of religious heritage sites in the province. In 2024, 250 applicants applied for $87 million worth of work, but the Conseil had just $25 million to disperse. This past June, the Québec Ministry of Culture and Communications abruptly suspended all funding to the program, leaving dozens of half-completed projects in limbo, and 100s more now severely endangered.
- Goodbye Canadian Register of Historic Places – Launched in 2004 through an innovative Federal-Provincial-Territorial collaboration as a single, searchable source for Canada’s recognized heritage sites, the CRHP was about 50% complete when funding dried up circa 2010 and its software has been crumbling ever since. In early 2026, the federal government will pull the plug on this keystone heritage resource. Rummage through the beautiful ruin while you can!
- Death by Prorogation for “Historic Places of Canada” Bill C-23 – Canada is the only G7 nation without legislation for federal heritage places. While existing federal policy is designed to protect heritage places in theory, in practice these weak requirements leave the places that embody Canada’s history, culture, and national identity vulnerable to loss or destruction. In 2022, Bill C-23 was introduced and all parties expressed support for heritage. The Bill died on the order paper at Second Reading when Parliament was prorogued this past January. A fresh version of the bill has yet to be re-introduced by the new government.
Making a List and Checking it Twice
Some issues we will be keeping our eyes on.
- Historic Legacy of Hudson’s Bay Company Stores – Grinchy HBC ownership had “a heart three sizes too small” by slowly bleeding the retail company dry and then selling precious artifacts to the highest bidder. While the priceless1670 Royal Charter now appears to be safe, the fate of HBC’s iconic collection of historic buildings – in places like Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal – remains in question and at risk.
- Wait… Where is the Wandering Federal Heritage Conservation Portfolio Now? – Put a GPS tracker on federal responsibility for historic places. Maybe the Historic Places bill got dropped in a snowbank while Parks Canada, the lead on historic places in Canada, was ping-ponging back and forth between the Minister of Canadian Identity, the Nature portfolio, and the Minister of the Environment. We hope they will now be snug in their beds at Environment for some time to come.