Battleford council is deferring making a decision on de-designating the old St. Vital church site a municipal heritage property after the town received some objections. (File photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

In the chambers

Council defers making decision on St. Vital church site

Apr 21, 2020 | 8:43 AM

Battleford lawmakers deferred making a decision to de-designate the former St. Vital church site a municipal heritage property after receiving some objections. The province will now step in to attempt to come to a resolution.

The town advertised over a month ago it would decide on the issue at its meeting Monday. It has since received four letters opposed to repealing the heritage status of the century-old building, one of which was from the Battlefords North West Historical Society.

Mayor Ames Leslie said the town only needed to receive one official letter of opposition “to stop this process” of de-designating the site.

Council accepted administration’s recommendation to defer the proposal, and to request the Saskatchewan Heritage Policy and Designation Advisor meet with the objectors to see if a solution can be found so perhaps the objections would be dropped.

“Democracy is showing its true form” with this process, Mayor Ames Leslie said.

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CAO John Enns-Wind said essentially the town is asking the province’s heritage branch to mediate to see if something can be done to resolve the issue. If that is not successful, the heritage board would hold a public meeting so each of the parties – the objectors and the town – could present their cases on the matter and the board would make a decision.

He said council can then accept the decision, or if it disagrees it can also still decide to vote and do what they want.

“These are steps that we have to go through,” Enns-Wind said. “We have been doing our best to ensure we follow the proper procedure, and to ensure that the community is given an opportunity to save the old church.”

The town will now send a letter to the objectors informing them of the process.

The town was looking to repeal the heritage designation because the building is in a dilapidated state and was being considered for future demolition.

Mayor Leslie said the majority of this community already indicated they do not want taxpayers’ dollars used for this project if an attempt were to be made to restore the structure.

The town said the cost to preserve the building is from about $500,000 to $750,000.

“So I would ask again the people who want to try and save this – and I am one of them, don’t get me wrong; I don’t want to see this church go away either – but we need to find a way so we can find a solution that it’s not taxpayers’ dollars being used to save this project,” Leslie said.

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW