About the Project

The Municipal District of Big Lakes Council is interested in compiling information about our physical history – the historic sites and buildings that make our municipality what it is.  The MD has received a generous $30,000 grant from Alberta Historical Resources Foundation toward the cost of conducting a Heritage Site Survey.  This project is the first step toward preserving our historic sites: finding out what is out there and recording information that will help assess its historic significance and value.

Heritage Advisory Committee

The MD recruited eight residents to sit on the Heritage Advisory Committee and the Committee has begun its work.  This Committee helped identify some of the sites to be surveyed and will be called upon to assess priorities for the various sites that are looked at as a part of this survey. It is hoped that this Committee will continue to work on future projects, such as more detailed assessment of the sites we survey and possible historical designation of some sites. 

Consultant

The MD worked with our consultants for this project, the highly respected Heritage Collaborative, led by Robert Buckle.  Robert and his team visited the MD several times since September, 2011, and the project is now complete.  We enjoyed working with them and learning from their considerable experience and knowledge. 

Heritage Site Survey - Phase I

Our Heritage Advisory Committee members and MD staff travelled MD roads looking for historical sites and noting their location.  This was done without much contact with landowners.  Owners of each potential historic site received a letter and a follow-up phone call asking for permission to have our consultants visit their property.  Our consultants then started their site visits, taking photographs and noting other important information about each site.  In the end, approximately 300 potential historic sites were visited, but it is estimated that at least 100 more sites remain on the list to be looked at in a future project. 

As the project progessed, the consultant short-listed 154 sites to be fully 'surveyed' - that is, photographed and annotated in the format required by the Province, and researched to provide details of ownership, use and significance.  These 154 sites were then presented to the public for comment at several open houses in early January, 2012, and numerous members of the public contributed information about the sites shown and also about sites that had been overlooked so far.

What's next?

The MD Council decided in December to continue with a second phase of this project in 2012, and a new grant proposal was submitted to enlist further support from the Alberta Government.  We have just learned that this grant proposal has been approved, so we hope to begin the second phase sometime this spring.  The project will complete the survey process, so that all parts of the MD have been surveyed for historical structures, including sites that may have been overlooked previously.  The project will then move forward into the inventory process.

During the inventory, the Heritage Advisory Committee will work with the Consultant to write a context paper that identifies important themes in our MD history.  This team will then review all the surveyed sites and choose ten for further work.  These ten will be assessed for significance to our MD history, structural integrity and eligibility for Provincial funding, and all findings will be documented and reported.  Please note that only ten sites can be accommodated in this inventory due to funding limitations.  It is anticipated that additional important sites will be inventoried in the future as funding becomes available.

Public consultation will be an important part of this survey/inventory project, so please watch for news of more open houses in your area in the coming months.  If you have any information about potential historic sites, please contact Pat Olansky, Community Development Officer.

How will this project affect MD residents?

It is important to remember that the MD is simply compiling information about historic sites at this point.  Later, there may be recommendations for municipal designation of sites that have particular historical significance.  However, regardless of any such recommendations, only landowners can make the decision to designate a historic site on their property.  So, having a historic site on your property surveyed or inventoried by the MD during this project will not cause any change in zoning, taxes or designation for landowners.

Please contact Pat Olansky, Community Development Officer, with any questions about this project and the historical designation process - phone 780-523-5955, or email development This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .