WHEREAS the protection and preservation of a communitys heritage is important from a social, cultural and economic perspective; AND WHEREAS the provincial government considers heritage to be part of the arts and culture community and, as a result, local heritage organizations do not receive the funding needed to sustain their efforts to protect and preserve our local history from the funds provided by the Province to the British Columbia Arts Council: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of British Columbia Municipalities lobby the provincial government to establish a funding program for the heritage community distinct from what exists and what is proposed to be provided to the BC Arts Council for arts and culture in the Province of British Columbia.
MINISTRY OF TOURISM, SPORT AND THE ARTS The Province assists local governments to build community capacity to conserve and manage heritage resources through cost-shared investments under the Community Heritage Planning Program of the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts. Support is also available, through Federal funding for the Historic Places Initiative, for local governments to develop and update Community Heritage Registers to identify places of heritage value for listing on the Canadian Register of Historic Places. Communities in the Kootenay region also benefit from access to project funding for arts, culture and heritage initiatives through the Columbia Basin Trust. In recent years, some local governments have also capitalized on Canada-BC Infrastructure Program funding to conserve community heritage resources. The Province no longer provides cost-shared capital project funding for the preservation, restoration, rehabilitation or interpretation of historic resources. The BC Heritage Trust, which existed from 1978 to 2003, contributed 30 million towards community heritage projects. The current dedicated source of project funding for community heritage initiatives is the Heritage Legacy Fund of BC, a non-governmental fund of the Vancouver Foundation, endowed by the Province with 5 million in 2003. The Province recognizes it must collaborate in the long-term development of this endowment fund.