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Provincial designation... whew, what a topic! We might have to take it in parts.

Regulation 10/06 is the companion to Regulation 9/06. Following a public consultation process, the two regulations were put in place in 2006 to set out the criteria for provincial and municipal designation.

HPTR has been around a long time now -- since 2001, when the then Ministry of Tourism and Culture worked with the Ministry of Finance to develop it.

The timing may seem odd to some -- it was still the Harris era, and in fact Tim Hudak was Minister of Tourism and Culture! After all the cuts to heritage (and other) programs you wouldn't think a new heritage incentive would be at the top of their list.

Or is it that hard heritage stats are good to find?

Good heritage policy starts with good information about what is really happening out there. Too much of what we see is anecdotal -- interesting, even useful, but not a sound basis for making policy choices.

Happy Heritage Week! To launch my new heritage blog, here is a version of an article I've written for the upcoming (Spring 2015) issue of ACORN, the journal of Architectural Conservancy Ontario (ACO): The Ontario Heritage Act (OHA) at 40 ... and how we, finally, got to Bill 60.