Municipal Heritage Services

The Alberta Main Street Program works hand-in-hand with the Municipal Heritage Partnership Program (MHPP) to help municipalities protect their historic places. The Municipal Heritage Partnership Program (MHPP) is designed to help municipalities manage their historic places. This program provides opportunities for municipalities to access funding assistance, expertise and networks that will help them to establish or maintain existing municipal heritage conservation programs.

The Alberta Main Street Program works hand-in-hand with MHPP to help municipalities protect their historic places. MHPP supports the development of municipal heritage management programs such as:

  1. Surveys, which gather information about all of the potential historic resources in a municipality and identify what types of resources it has;
  2. Inventories, which evaluate potentially significant historic places, and clarify their heritage significance and integrity through preparing draft Statements of Significance;
  3. Municipal designation of historic places for inclusion on the Alberta and Canadian Registers of Historic Places; and,
  4. Municipal heritage plans and policies that will guide historic place management practices.

The Alberta Historical Resources Foundation funds approved conservation work on historic places, in accordance with the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada. To be eligible for conservation funding, a place must be protected through designation and placed on the Alberta and Canadian Registers of Historic laces. Local communities are best able to determine their own historic places. Legal protection of these heritage resources can also take place locally, through Municipal Historic Resource designation, accomplished by a bylaw of a municipal council. For places with heritage value to all Albertans, Alberta Culture and Community Spirit may designate a place as a Provincial Historic Resource. The Municipal Heritage Partnership Program can assist with this process of identifying, evaluating, and planning for the management of locally significant historic places.

Support from MHPP

Support from MHPP for identification, evaluation, and protection of local historic places consists primarily of funding and guidance. The province is committed to helping municipalities in becoming stewards of their unique heritage and the guiding force for the protection of the historic places that each community determines to be important. MHPP offers:

  1. Cost-sharing opportunities to help prepare surveys, inventories and management plans;
  2. Manuals and guides to surveys, inventories, designation and heritage planning;
  3. Training to prepare management programs and documents relating to MHPP;
  4. Economic rationale for heritage designation; and
  5. A staff of heritage experts who are ready to help in the process.