Smashing heritage

Local Architectural Conservancy group calls for halt to demolition

At one time, Prince Edward County was home to 11 lighthouses, providing beacons of safety to the mariners who sailed the waters along its shores. The first lighthouse was built on False Duck Island early in the nineteenth century, and the last of the remaining 10 was constructed on the eve of the First World War. Some were rebuilt after falling into disrepair or being demolished. Of those lighthouses, only four remain, and one is currently in danger.

Without any public consultation and according to the Prince Edward County branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO PEC), in complete disregard of the HLPA and Treasury Board policies concerning heritage buildings, Environment and Climate Change Canada has begun demolishing the buildings associated with the Point Petre lighthouse. The story is all too similar to that of the Hyatt and MacDonald houses in Sandbanks Provincial Park, which were demolished last September, even after public outcry for due process.

The lightkeeper’s dwelling at Point Petre, built in 1962 as a home for the resident lightkeepers and their families, has already been completely demolished. The radio shack, dating from the 1950s, and housing the radio equipment for the once-essential radio beacon navigation system, is slated to be torn down, with an exact date unknown. Without heritage protection in place, the present nineteen-metre-tall, red-and-white striped tower, which was erected in 1967 to replace the 1833 tower located at the tip of the point, could also be in the queue.

According to Liz Driver, Interim President of ACO PEC, the Government of Canada is demolishing heritage buildings without due process. “Any demolitions that may be planned at Point Petre must be halted until the Government of Canada’s current heritage designation process has been completed,” she said. Driver added that lighthouses and their related buildings, especially the Point Petre Lighthouse complex, were not only essential aids to navigation around Prince Edward County’s dangerous points that jut out into the eastern end of Lake Ontario, but also significant elements of the landscape and the County’s cultural heritage.

In 2015, the Point Petre lighthouse, along with the lightkeeper’s dwelling and the radio shack were nominated for heritage designation under the terms of the federal Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act (HLPA). A proposal from a local community organization, the Hastings Prince Edward Land Trust (HPELT), to conserve the lighthouse and the other two buildings, has been under consideration by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) since then. The lighthouse advocacy group—Save Our Lighthouses— has followed up with DFO every year or so to request the status of the designation process, and were advised that delays caused by clean-up of contaminated soil near the buildings, and a backlog due to the number of lighthouses nominated for designation under the HLPA, has meant that this collection of culturally significant buildings is still on track to be designated as a heritage site.

ACO PEC says the entire site is of great cultural heritage significance to all Canadians as it is one of the region’s last remaining vestiges of Canada’s once-vital marine history, which contributed so much to the development of the country from the 19th century through to the present day. The lightkeeper’s dwelling was the third house that had been built for the lightkeepers who lived at the site with their families until the lighthouse was fully automated in the 1980s. The radio shack was the control room for the radio-beacon navigation system. Before the widespread use of GPS systems, ships sailing across Lake Ontario relied on this marine navigation system whenever a lighthouse was not in sight. Furthermore, both of these buildings were crucial to HPELT’s plans for the future conservation of the lighthouse. Without these buildings, the conservation of the entire heritage site may be in question.

Marc Seguin, founding member of the heritage organization Save Our Lighthouses, and author of For Want of a Lighthouse: Building the Lighthouses of Eastern Lake Ontario 1828- 1914, said another issue at this particular site may have been the split jurisdiction. “While DFO is responsible for the lighthouse itself, a different government department, ECCC is reponsible for the related buildings. Was ECCC aware that these related buildings are part of the lighthouse designation process? Did they care?” asked Seguin. “The bottom line is, they should have known and they should not have demolished the lightkeeper’s house without consultation with, at the very least, HPELT, DFO and Parks Canada. This demolition is, at the very least, counter to the spirit of the HLPA, and appears to blatantly ignore the Treasury Board’s stated policies concerning the preservation of heritage buildings,” he said, adding that with one of the key buildings at Point Petre demolished and another under immediate threat of demolition, the conservation of the entire site is in question.

Seguin shares that his group is now working with the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, the Heritage Trust of Canada and MP Ryan Williams to stop any further demolitions at Point Petre. “We also would like a process implemented to speed up the designation of other lighthouses that are HLPA eligible. If the Point Petre lighthouse complex had been designated even two or three years ago, we would not be seeing these heritage buildings torn down now,” said Seguin.

The actions also bring into question the fate of other historical lighthouses in the County—the Main Duck Island lighthouse and the False Ducks Island lighthouse. Both have been waiting for HLPA designation since 2015. According to Seguin, while they languish in this same sea of red tape, they are slowly disintegrating. “By 2015, 349 federally-owned lighthouses across Canada were eligible for desgnation under the HLPA. That year, the Government of Canada designated 74 lighthouses, including Scotch Bonnet Island and Point Traverse. Since 2015, another 38 lighthouses have been designated. There are still 237 lighthouses that have not been designated. Even if only half of those remaining end up being designated, if the current designation rate is not sped up, it will take more than 20 years to designate the rest of the lighthouses and their related buildings. In 20 years, the vast majority of these lighthouses will have become victims of demolition by neglect’.”

On August 11, Seguin will be giving a deputation to the Prince Edward Heritage Advisory Committee to update them as to the status of the Point Petre lighthouse complex so that it might consider a motion to County Council recommending that Council express their concern to the federal government about the lack of due process in the demolition of heritage buildings in Prince Edward County.