The City of Edmonton is developing a new Heritage Places Strategy. The strategy will replace Edmonton’s current Historic Resource Management Plan (2009) to create a new strategy that includes diverse histories, voices and places. The strategy will consider The City Plan, the City of Edmonton’s Indigenous Framework and other council priorities.

Based on the feedback received in Phase 2, combined with research from other cities and alignment with City policies, the draft Heritage Places Strategy is ready. The draft strategy contains the updated Guiding Principles, updated Pillars, recommended directions and proposed implementation activities to guide the heritage program and support partners. Please review the draft Heritage Places Strategy or the summary prior to sharing your input.

In this Phase 3, we invite you to share your input on the draft strategy to help with possible adjustments. Following this third and final phase of engagement, the Heritage Places Strategy will be presented to Council in the summer of 2026.

The new Heritage Places Strategy will help reimagining how to identify, commemorate, and preserve the places that matter most to Edmontonians. The Heritage Places Strategy will offer recommendations and guidance to City Council, City Administration, Indigenous partners, heritage partners, community organizations and residents. The draft Heritage Places Strategy document includes four main sections: Background, Guiding Principles, Pillars and Directions and Implementation. The project team is looking for specific feedback on the Pillars and Directions section and the Implementation section.

Pillar 1: Natural Heritage

The Natural Heritage Pillar recognizes natural heritage, including landscapes, natural features, open and park spaces, trees and geological formations.

1.1 Develop and maintain a survey of significant natural heritage resources.

1.2. Encourage the conservation, maintenance and commemoration of natural heritage resources through updated processes, the use of incentives, creation of management plans or other tools.

1.3 Consider, in collaboration with city departments, additions of city-owned natural heritage resources in the Inventory and Registry of Historic Resources.

1.4 Encourage the identification and commemoration of a site’s overlapping and layered heritage (e.g. geological, ecological, cultural, recreational etc).

1.5 Encourage physical and digital interpretation tools to identify and commemorate significant natural landscapes, features, open or park spaces, and trees.

1.6 Encourage land developers or the private sector to incorporate natural heritage commemoration or interpretation into the development or redevelopment of sites.

Pillar 2: Indigenous Heritage

The Indigenous Heritage Pillar recognizes First Nations, Métis, and Inuit histories, languages, cultural practices, and relationships to land and water.

2.1 Work with the Indigenous communities, rights holders, the City of Edmonton's Memorandum of Understanding partners, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers to support Indigenous heritage initiatives through relationship building.

2.2 Follow the City’s Indigenous Framework to ensure that engagement with Indigenous partners supports community-led participation, includes culturally appropriate activities and settings, and seeks input from Elders and Knowledge Keepers.

2.3 Support, in collaboration with Indigenous partners, ceremony and cultural heritage practices, including providing funding for protocol and following trust-based approaches that enable for safe and respectful knowledge-sharing.

2.4 Partner with Indigenous communities to identify places of significance and commemorate the tangible and intangible heritage associated with the places.

2.5 Support appropriate measures to commemorate significant or sacred sites in ways that promote preservation and minimize harm.

2.6 Encourage the recognition of Indigenous heritage across multiple domains, including land, buildings, community, public space, and storytelling.

Pillar 3: Community and Cultural Heritage

The Community and Cultural Heritage pillar recognizes local histories and places of significance to diverse communities.

3.1 Collaborate with diverse communities to identify places of community or cultural significance and the heritage associated with them.

3.2 Support place-based, community-led heritage initiatives, including programming, mapping projects, monuments and storytelling.

3.3 Prioritize placed-based, community-led heritage initiatives that reflect the histories and experiences of 2SLGBTQIA+, Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC), immigrant, newcomer, cultural, disability, and other traditionally underrepresented communities.

3.4 Encourage historical and cultural commemoration within neighbourhoods, in collaboration with City departments or community partners, through physical interpretive infrastructure such as, but not limited to, applying historical street names, banners, cultural markers, sidewalk or pavement etching.

3.5 Engage with partners such as the Edmonton Arts Council and the Edmonton Heritage Council to support heritage commemoration through public art.

3.6 Collaborate with the Edmonton Historical Board, the Edmonton Heritage Council, and other partners to promote the importance of heritage, to improve the collective work on heritage and to strengthen the overall heritage program.

3.7 Work with community partners to support historical research, expand the Inventory and Register of Historic Resources, and strengthen placed-based heritage initiatives.

Pillar 4: Community and Cultural Heritage

The Built Heritage pillar recognizes local histories and places of significance to diverse communities.

4.1 Work with property owners to add eligible properties to the Inventory of Historic Resources.

4.2 Work with property owners to support the designation of eligible properties as Municipal Historic Resources.

4.3 Review and explore updates to the allocation, disbursement, and administration of existing heritage grants and incentives.

4.4 Explore new grants or incentives to support heritage designation, rehabilitation and maintenance in support of climate resilience initiatives and energy-related retrofits.

4.5 Explore new grants or incentives to support heritage designation, rehabilitation and maintenance that support City or council priorities.

4.6 Create maintenance guides that reflect heritage conservation best practices, climate resilience considerations, estimated costs, and appropriate material options.

4.7 Investigate areas of historical interest that could be recognized through heritage commemoration tools as opportunities arise and capacity allows.

4.8 Ensure that broader histories and stories associated with Municipal Historic Resources are documented and shared.

4.9 Continue to improve processes to support property owners and developers through heritage designation, approvals, and technical requirements.

4.10 Steward the preservation, management, and celebration of City-owned built heritage resources.

4.11 Address issues related to materials and other heritage matters while seeking alignment with provincial or national heritage standards and guidelines.

4.12 Promote heritage as a contributor to economic development, local businesses, and tourism.

4.13 Explore grants, incentives, or enforcement tools to prevent willful neglect or the potential demolition of properties listed on the Inventory or the Register of Historic Resources.

4.14 Explore grants, incentives or other tools that support deconstruction over demolition to retain materials, reduce waste, and advance circular economy practices.

4.15 Support other orders of government, post-secondary institutions, school boards, utility companies, and other organizations in creating inventories of their heritage building stock. The City will work with these organizations toward additions to the Inventory and Register of Historic Resources.

4.16 Support work towards geographical, topical, or theme-based studies to expand the Inventory of Historic Resources where appropriate.

4.17 Prioritize, where staff or financial resources are limited, Municipal Historic Resource designation of publicly accessible properties.

The Implementation section includes six activities that will complement and achieve the Directions under the Pillars.

1. Indigenous Partnership & Stewardship
2. Community-Led Storytelling & Interpretation
3. Heritage Awareness and Promotion
4. City-Owned Heritage Stewardship & Leadership
5. Incentives
6. Heritage Areas and Context-Based Conservation

Submit a question below to the project team or see what others have asked. Questions and answers are posted within 5 business days.

Please note you must register on Engaged Edmonton to ask a question. You will need to provide a screen name and email to register as all questions go through an automated moderation process. Your screen name will be displayed but all other information is kept confidential.

If you are unable to ask your question on this site, you may also ask your question to the Project Team by emailing heritagestrategy@edmonton.ca. Please avoid asking your question in two different places, such as emailing the team as well as posting on this site. It is not necessary to do both in order for feedback to be captured, and may delay response times.

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