BILL S-215, AN ACT TO PROTECT HERITAGE LIGHTHOUSES
PRESERVING
HERITAGE LIGHTSTATIONS
Earlier this fall, I announced that I will retire from the Senate on January 31, 2008. My priority
before I retire is to re-introduce the Act to protect heritage lighthouses, and move it forward through the legislative process.
This bill has had a long legislative history since it was first introduced as Bill S-21 in April of 2000, and subsequently
as S-43 (May 2002), S-7 (October 2002), S-5 (February 2004), S-14 (October 2004), S-220 (October 2006), and currently S-215 (November
2007).
By September 14, 2007, when Parliament was prorogued, Bill S-220 had passed third reading in the Senate
and had made it to Committee stage in the House of Commons. As a private member’s bill from the Senate, it died on
the order paper. I re-introduced the Act as Bill S-215 on November 1, 2007 – our seventh attempt in seven years to gain
protection for heritage lighthouses.
Bill S-215 originated in 2000 with Senator Michael Forrestall of Nova Scotia.
As the co-sponsor of the bill, I worked with Senator Forestall to have this legislation enacted until his death in June of 2006.
Senator Forrestall served in the Senate for nearly sixteen years, and his commitment to our coasts and all of Canada is greatly
missed.
Modeled after Canada’s Heritage Railway Act, the Heritage Lighthouse Bill will protect lightstations
that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government from being altered, sold, removed, assigned, transferred or otherwise
disposed of without public consultation. It will also require that designated heritage lighthouses, and the stations at which
they are located, be reasonably maintained.
B.C. has 52 of Canada’s surviving 256 lighthouses. These buildings
are vulnerable because the Coast Guard has no mandate for heritage protection. Although the Department of Fisheries and Oceans
has attempted to rectify this problem with the Coast Guard’s ambitious "Alternate Use Program", it has been ineffective
because of the current laws and policies regarding disposal of federal property. Public proposals are more often unachievable
under existing regulations.
People care deeply about the lighthouses on both coasts. The focus of the bill is to
provide a process whereby the public can be involved in the heritage designation, alteration or disposal of a lighthouse.
The bill does not make public consultation automatic; however it establishes a process whereby interested parties must
be given a reasonable opportunity to make presentations to the board.
There are presently 120 lighthouses that have
been granted heritage status. As others are so designated they will also be covered.
Only nine of B.C.’s stations
are currently designated as fully or partially protected heritage buildings. They include Carmana Point, built in 1891; Fisgard
(1860); Race Rocks (1842); Pachena Point (1908); Estevan Point (1909); Langara (1913); Triple Island (1921); Brockton Point (1890);
and Point Atkinson (1874).
We need your help. If you would like to help preserve an important aspect of B.C.’s
maritime history, please write to Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn, and to the Hon. John Baird, Minister of the Environment
and Parks Canada, outlining your support for this bill.
Please write to them at:
Honourable
Loyola Hearn, PC, MP
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Honourable
John Baird, PC, MP
Minister of Environment and Minister responsible for Parks Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa,
ON K1A 0A6
For more information on Bill S-215, follow these links to read the text of the bill and our speeches in the
Senate. You will also find links to my previous heritage lighthouse legislation speeches.