section4-02e

Townsite Management

Provide Responsible Environmental Stewardship and Heritage Conservation

Status of Townsite Heritage Assets

Heritage assets in townsites include those owned by Parks Canada and others owned by third parties. Examples of heritage assets are national historic sites such as the Banff Springs Hotel in Banff National Park, recognized federal heritage buildings such as the Superintendent’s House in Yoho National Park, and heritage railway stations such as the Jasper Heritage Railway Station in Jasper National Park.

Parks Canada is directly responsible for the condition of the assets it owns, and seeks to influence the condition of third-party owned assets by providing lessees with information on the heritage values of their property, and information on how to protect those heritage values. The Town of Banff has developed its own policy with respect to heritage buildings, while Parks Canada will be working with the Town of Jasper to develop a similar policy. Table 31 summarizes the number of built heritage resources found in national park communities owned by Parks Canada or others, and the condition ratings for Parks Canada-owned priority assets.

Table 31: Status of Built Heritage Resources in National Park Communities, 2006-2007

	Inventory (BHRDA)*	Parks Canada Owned	Parks Canada Owned Priority (FHBRO) Assets				Other Crown Owned	3rd Party Owned
		Number	Number	Condition			Number	Number
				Good	Fair	Poor
Field	Complete	6	1 FHBRO 1 Priority		1	1	0	36
Lake Louise	Complete	1	0	No priority assets			0	9
Waterton	Complete	21	17 FHBRO	Not available			2 FHBRO	32
Wasagaming	Complete	52	11 FHBRO	1	7	3	0	60
Waskesiu	In progress	8	8 FHBRO		8		0	1 will increase upon completion of BHRDA
Banff	Complete Town of Banff Responsibility for majority of assets	6	6 FHBRO	1	2	3	1 FHBRO 1 Railway Stn	259
Jasper	Complete	8	8 FHBRO	1	4	3	0	108
Total		102	51 FHBRO 1 Priority	3	22	10	5	505
Source	Community Built Heritage Reports

*BHRDAs (Built Heritage Resource Descriptions and Analyses) have been completed using different criteria over time. These are, for the most part, being updated by Parks Canada Heritage Architects and this will result in changes to the numbers for both third party and Parks Canada-owned priority buildings.

As of March 31, 2007, 6 of 7 communities have completed an inventory of their heritage assets, and 1 is in process. Parks Canada understands the condition of its assets in 6 of 7 communities. Waskesiu has had difficulties obtaining condition ratings for its Parks Canada owned priority assets because of the costs of conducting inspections for a large number of structures. Waskesiu is currently developing a heritage conservation plan to address this issue. Four of seven communities have completed action plans (including performance targets) to address protection and presentation goals, while the remaining 3 communities are in the process of completing such plans.

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