Yellowknife (Feb 20/04) - The pressure of development is one of the greatest challenges facing Yellowknife's Heritage Committee, said committee chair James Lawrance.

James Lawrance, chair of Yellowknife's heritage committee, outlines the challenges of designating historic sites for delegates at the Cultural Places conference. - Jennifer Geens/NNSL photo

"You have to try and balance the community's need to grow with protecting heritage resources," he said.

Yellowknife played host to delegates from across the NWT for the Cultural Places: Connecting Our Lives and Land conference this week.

Delegates made presentations and discussed issues related to designating historic sites.

In his presentation, Lawrance addressed the challenges the heritage committee faces in their work to preserve sites of historic significance throughout the city.

Eight designated sites

Yellowknife has eight designated historic sites.

"The fact that there are only eight is an indication of the difficulty of getting sites designated," said Lawrance.

Three are city-owned: the Wildcat Cafe, the Fireweed Studio and Back Bay cemetery.

Mildred Hall log school is owned by the school board.

The four others are privately owned: the Toronto Dominion bank, the Hudson's Bay warehouse, the Canadian Pacific building, and the Weaver and Devore building which now houses Bullock's bistro.

Lawrance cautioned delegates not to concentrate too much on one historic area of their community.

He cited the numerous heritage designations in Yellowknife's Old Town.

"It's easy to get focused on one area of your town and then when Con Mine closes you realize there's another whole area," Lawrance said.

The Heritage Committee is trying to have the Cottage Hospital at Con Mine moved to the Stanton Hospital grounds.

Lawrance also warned delegates not to designate and run

Federal register

The historic building should serve the community in some fashion.

"You can't just let it sit there," he said.

The conference was spurred on by the federal government's creation of the Canadian Register of Historic Places, a national, online database of historic sites.

To get a site onto the registry, it has to already have been designated by a municipal, territorial, provincial or the national government.

The NWT doesn't have a designation process for historic sites.

The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre has hired a consultant to draft one.

The centre's cultural places officer, Emily Hawkins, said getting sites onto the registry will make information about NWT history available nationally and might increase tourism.