NSLPS - Preservation - The Campaign for a Lighthouse Protection Act

The Disposal of the beautiful wooden lighthouse at Mosher Island in Nova Scotia in 1990.
Photo courtesy Ann and Thom Drew

The following article was placed on the NSLPS Website in the year 2000, at the beginning of the campaign for a Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act. The Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act was passed and signed into law in May, 2008.
This article has not been edited apart from changes related to contacts that were to be made to Members of Parliament. That section has been edited to prevent readers assuming they should make such contact on behalf of an Act that has been passed.

Why Canada Needed a Lighthouse Protection Act

Changing technologies and deep budget cuts at Canadian Coast Guard are leading to a steady decommissioning of Canadian Lighthouses and severe neglect of surviving lightstations. Existing heritage protection is wholly inadequate. Few lights have been classified. Ironically, many community groups have come forward to assist in restoring and maintaining their lightstations, but property and disposal regulations enforced by the federal Treasury Board make their participation all but impossible and prefer to sell lighthouses to the highest bidder. A Lighthouse Protection Act would set heritage standards for all lighthouses. It would enable a trustee relationship whereby lighthouses remain public property but can be developed appropriately by communities. A ready-to-use precedent exists in the Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act which was passed by Parliament in 1988. Unless this action is taken soon, Canada stands to lose hundreds of heritage structures and irreplaceable public access to our coastlines.

Facts About Canada's Threatened Lighthouses

FACT: In the first decade of the 20th century, Canada had more than 800 staffed lighthouses, beacons and fog horns. Today there are 52 lighthouses with resident keepers.

FACT: Large scale automation, cuts to the Canadian Coast Guard and subsequent downgrading of traditional aids to navigation means that existing lightstations receive minimal maintenance. Historically significant structures are literally falling apart.

FACT: Dozens of lighthouses, keepers' dwellings and ancillary buildings have been torn down, burned, vandalized, or sold and moved off lightstation property.

FACT: Surplus lighthouse properties are presently subject to Real Properties Act, making it very difficult for communities to take over and maintain lighthouse structures and sites, and virtually guaranteeing their sale for private development.

FACT: Canada's lightstations often offer the only public access to a coastline where public access is disappearing.

FACT: In Canada, the Federal Heritage Building Review Office (FHBRO) has classified (fully protected) only 19 heritage lighthouses. A further 101 lights are recognized (partially protected). FHBRO has rejected 157 lighthouses from heritage status according to existing federal regulations.

FACT: Only 3.25 percent of Canada's 583 surviving lighthouses have full heritage protection. Under current federal regulations, more lighthouses are being rejected than protected.

FACT: In the United States, nearly 70 percent of lighthouses over 50 years old have heritage protection by the National Register of Historic Places and the number is climbing.

Sources:
Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society Database
Federal Heritage Building Review Office
Historic Lighthouse Preservation Handbook, US Parks Service
Canadian Coast Guard-List of Lights, Buoys and Fog Signals 1992

A Lighthouse Protection Act: A Statement of Principles

These are the prociples on which the first draft of the Act was built, in the year 2000.

The Lighthouse Protection Act recognizes the cultural and historical significance of lighthouses, the importance of their natural and environmental settings, and their potential as catalysts for the revitalization of coastal communities.

Specifically, the Lighthouse Protection Act acknowledges that lighthouses are:
(a) fundamental to the identity of Canadian coastal communities;
(b) an inalienable part of our Maritime and National heritage;
(c) a special kind of national property deserving protection from neglect and privatization that must remain in the public domain.

The Lighthouse Protection Act encourages ways in which coastal communities and/or communities of interest can become "trustees of the lights" for the nation. The Lighthouse Protection Act allows for ways in which lighthouses and lighthouse sites can be maintained and preserved, not only navigationally, where that remains a pr present and a continuing necessity, but also can be developed for other purposes according to the criteria of the Lighthouse Alternative Use Programme.

The Lighthouse Protection Act will define the distinctive characteristics and the interplay of characteristics belonging to lighthouses and lighthouse sites. This would include, but not be restricted to, the following points.
The significance of lighthouses:
(i) navigationally
(ii) culturally
(iii) historically
(iv) educationally
(v) environmentally
(vi) architecturally
(vii) in matters of sovereignty
(viii) politically
(ix) socially
(x) economically

The Lighthouse Protection Act will designate the Lights included under its protectorate according to these characteristics and will ensure that no lighthouse or lighthouse site be disposed of without public consultation.

The Lighthouse Protection Act seeks inter-governmental co-operation and requires co-operation between various government departments.

For instance, the navigational and strategic significance of some Lights would mean that they remain totally under the trusteeship and operational mandate of CCG within DFO, but without prejudice to the fundamental principles of the Act. In such a case, the CCG would be the managing governmental body for any alternative use according to the criteria of the Lighthouse Alternative Use Programme.

Or, for instance, the interplay of distinctive characteristics with some Lights would mean a partnership between DFO/CCG and Dept. of Canadian Heritage/Parks Canada clearly delineating their respective responsibilities for the site. The weighting of the distinctive characteristics would determine which governmental body would exercise oversight and responsibility for any alternative use according to the criteria of the Lighthouse Alternative Use Programme.

Or, for instance, Lights which are non-operational from a DFO/CCG point of view would be placed under the trusteeship of Dept. of Canadian Heritage/Parks Canada which would have oversight and responsibility for any alternative use according to the criteria of the Lighthouse Alternative Use Programme. The Lighthouse Protection Act provides the legislative umbrella under which the Lighthouse Alternative Use Programme functions with respect to both operational and non-operational Lights: in the case of the former, principally through co-operation with DFO/CCG; in the case of the latter, principally through co-operation with the appropriate department, e.g., Dept. of Canadian Heritage/Parks Canada.

Facts About Canada's Threatened Lighthouses

A Lighthouse Protection Act: A Statement of Principles

How people were asked to help.