By: Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press
Town of Essex staff members are looking into the Heritage Grant Program and finding ways it can be improved to better serve privately owned designated properties, Essex Council heard at the February 2 meeting.
Rita Jabbour, Manager of Planning Services, noted the Municipal Heritage Committee and heritage property owners have been reviewing the Grant Program and will propose modifications to Council in 2026.
The idea will be to make the program more accessible for applicants and incorporate a broader range of services, and continue to improve the uptake and accessibility of the grants.
Jabbour presented an annual overview for the Town of Essex’s Heritage Grant Program, which was adopted in 2017 as allowed via the Ontario Heritage Act. It allows the municipality to provide grants or loans to the owners of properties designated under the Act for the purpose of completing alterations to the heritage resource.
When that is a private property, typically that is a home. It could, however, be a commercial business as well.
Every year, the Town of Essex allocates $25,000 to the Operating Budget to fund the grant. Uptake in 2025 was just over $7200.
Three grants are offered through the program. The Professional Heritage Services Grant Program, valued at $2000 per property, helps offset the cost of services from an architect, engineer, or archaeologist for preservation and conservation advice. The Development Permit Fee Grant Program offers 100% of the permit or application fee to help offset the cost of building permits or Planning Act applications to support a repair or restoration. The Repair and Restoration Grant Program offers 50% up to $10,000 for improvements to conserve, reconstruct, repair, or restore significant components of built and cultural resources.
For the first six-years the program has been available, Jabbour said uptake was pretty slow, largely because the Town did not have a large inventory of private heritage properties that would qualify.
In 2024, however, Town staff worked to designate listed properties on the Municipal Heritage Register. That is because Bill 23 made changes to the Ontario Heritage Act. Most notably, listed properties on a register as of December 31, 2022 must be removed by 2027 if no Notice of Intention to designate is given.
Since, uptake of the grant program has increased steadily.
Jabbour noted the Grant Program is expected to continue to be of interest and of assistance to private heritage property owners in 2026.
“For us – staff – the grant program was actually a very valuable tool when we were working with those heritage property owners to get them to consider a heritage designation,” Jabbour said, adding a Heritage Grant is rare in Essex County. Essex likely has one of the only grants for this type of program.
Funding levels in the program will continue to be monitored, Jabbour noted.
Deputy Mayor Rob Shepley wanted to ensure the grants are not being used to encourage people to designate their properties.
The Town of Essex Heritage Register, and webpages dedicated to the Heritage Grant program, are available at www.essex.ca.