I am sorry, my presentation really was very short.
The first point is about Bill C-323, which proposes tax incentives for private owners. Measures like that would encourage and help a lot of people. The measures should be widely available to all private owners of heritage properties, such as houses, mills, lighthouses or industrial buildings.
Ten or so years ago, a federal government program provided assistance for renovating houses. I was able to take advantage of it and it helped me a lot. If a similar program could be established for heritage houses, that often cost two to four times more than a normal house, it would be a great help.
If they do a quick calculation on the return on investment, real estate developers have little incentive to preserve a heritage house. We have even seen a number of cases in Quebec where they have deliberately been made to disappear. If they could have financial or tax incentives, real estate developers would realize, when they did the math, that it may be advantageous to incorporate a heritage building into their real estate projects or to preserve it.
The idea of historic or heritage property has to be broadened beyond the list in the Canadian Register of Historic Places. The list is very helpful, but it is not complete because it does not include certain buildings.
The department could become a leader in supporting heritage by working together with the various levels of government to establish things like tax incentives. Heritage Montreal, with the appropriate ministry in Quebec, has been working for 10 years to create tax incentives along the lines of the examples in the United States. The National Trust for Canada has also been working on it for a long time.
So other departments must be encouraged to safeguard heritage, but also municipalities, which derive tax revenue from new projects. Clearly, a heritage building brings a municipality much less in taxes than 100 condos in a single building. So all levels of government must support those who are working to safeguard our heritage.
This year, Parks Canada's national cost-sharing program for heritage places has been given $10 million. We have gone from nothing to $1 million and now to $10 million. That is a help, but, one day, we are going to have to stabilize that funding because a lot of people involved with heritage buildings in Canada need support.
Organizations that raise funds also have to be supported. In Canada, fundraising initiatives to preserve natural sites, and other places, have matching gift programs. Natural sites are our natural heritage. If there were similar programs for cultural heritage, it would help organizations like ours that have to raise funds to pay for restoration projects costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, even a million.
The gifts we receive are $30 and $35 at a time. A quick calculation makes you realize that we need a lot of $30 and $35 gifts to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. It means contacting a lot of people.
In Canada, organizations are putting a lot of effort into conserving heritage buildings, but they are not being recognized. Even in Quebec's Cultural Heritage Act, those organizations are not mentioned. However, a number of organizations like ours are working to conserve heritage buildings and support other owners in their conservation efforts.
In broad terms, those are the points I wanted to bring up. I hope I have given you enough detail.