City of Brantford Council unanimously supported the continuation of the Heritage Grant Program during their Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, February 11, 2025.
The program, which was first created back in 2018 as a three-year pilot program, was designed to provide a matching grant for projects that appropriately repair, restore or maintain a designated heritage property and its attributes.
When the program was implemented, it was originally done so with a budget of $75,000, to be funded from the Council Priorities Reserve, and provided a maximum grant of $5,000 per application.
In December of 2021, Council voted to extend the Heritage Grant Program pilot to the end of 2025 as it was negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and two years later the decision was made to increase the maximum grant amount from $5,000 to $20,000 per application.
Between 2019 and 2023, eight projects were allocated funding, and a total of $24,974.09 was distributed across seven of those applications. From 2024 and into early 2025, eight additional applications were processed and approved, resulting in a combined total of $41,161.53 in approved grants, leaving approximately $8,864.38 left of the original $75,000 budget.
Given how much is left in the fund for the remainder of the year, staff, with support from the Brantford Heritage Committee, prepared a report earlier than anticipated in order to explore how the City can continue the program.
On Tuesday, staff proposed that the grant program’s pilot period end and that the program be continued on a permanent basis. As part of the recommendation, an annual $50,000 will be funded from the Cultural and Built Heritage Reserve in order to support the Heritage Grant Program for the years 2025, 2026 and 2027.
It was noted that the funding allocated through the reserve will not impact the annual tax levy as it will be funded by revenue from Elements Casino.
The report also stated that staff will continue to monitor the program and prepare a new funding request as part of the next multi-year budget process.
During the meeting, Mayor Kevin Davis commended staff for bringing the recommendation forward.
“We’ve got a great stock of historical buildings in our community, and there’s two ways to get to a designation. One, it’s imposed on you as a landowner, which I’m philosophically opposed to. The better way is what I call it through the carrot, and that is providing a benefit or incentive to having your property designated,” said Davis. This is what this program does. It provides for matching grants up to 50% to a maximum of $20,000 for any renovation to a property that has been designated and is intended to preserve some heritage aspect of that property.”
He continued to say that it’s a great program that has helped to preserve the stock of historical properties.
“We’ve seen that since it was instituted in 2018, we’ve made various improvements to it over the years, and what’s very gratifying is to see that it’s being used. … I’m hoping that over time, if we continue this program, we’ll see this act as an incentive or catalyst to other landowners voluntarily agreeing to designate a property they own that’s historically significant, and doing it because there’s a benefit to doing it. There’s, I think, good reasons for helping those who take on the burden of owning and preserving a heritage property in our community and helping them with the cost of doing renovations that preserve the historical character of those properties.”
Councillors Mandy Samwell had similar sentiments.
“I just wanted to comment that being on the Heritage Committee, I’ve seen firsthand the good things that have come from this grant program and how it supports folks to be able to take good care of their properties,” said Samwell. “We’ve seen a lot of projects come forward that may not have happened without this grant, and I’m really glad to see this coming forward tonight as well.”
Following the comments, Council then unanimously recommended the item for approval. The item will be up for final approval during the next Council meeting on Tuesday, February 25, 2025.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
