{"id":13683,"date":"2016-03-16T16:51:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T20:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=13683"},"modified":"2016-03-16T16:51:48","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T20:51:48","slug":"feds-should-put-up-money-for-national-historic-site-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/feds-should-put-up-money-for-national-historic-site-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds should put up money for National Historic Site: Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last fall, the new Federal Government promised \u201csunny ways\u201d and now Council is looking for the Federal sun to shine down on Hillary House with an infusion of public money.<\/p>\n

Council approved a notice from Councillor Jeff Thom last week calling on Mayor Geoff Dawe to write a letter lobbying Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage, to earmark federal funding for infrastructure upgrades to Hillary House and the Koffler Museum of Medicine, the Town\u2019s only National Historic Site, and extending that net to include Aurora\u2019s two Members of Parliament \u2013 Newmarket-Aurora MP Kyle Peterson and Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MP Leona Alleslev. <\/p>\n

\u201cHillary House is recognized by the National Historic Sites and Monuments Board as one of Canada\u2019s best examples of Gothic Revival Architecture,\u201d said Councillor Thom in his notice of motion. \u201cHillary House is a leading example of a heritage house museum in Canada, which combines architectural significance and the historic possessions of the many generations of medical doctors who worked and lived there [but] is in need of significant infrastructure upgrades in order to pass on this irreplaceable piece of Aurora\u2019s heritage to future generations of Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hillary House National Historic Site is currently owned by the Aurora Historical Society (AHS). AHS member John Greene was on hand to hear Council\u2019s decision on the motion, where it received widespread support.<\/p>\n

\u201cHillary House is something we all treasure in Town, it is a real gemstone in the community, and I think everyone at Council recognizes this,\u201d said Councillor Thom at last week\u2019s meeting. \u201c[The motion] recognizes [that we] as Councillors have a responsibility to lobby members of higher levels of government [and] personally putting it in the public sphere is so important. It gets the issue talked about within the community and it can also spur some action that we can tackle on two fronts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current Federal Government, during the election, ran on what they called \u2018social infrastructure\u2019 and they would be providing funding for such initiatives. They did not provide a hell of a lot of specifics on that, but they did provide to us an indication they would be providing in their budgets, moving forward, funding on social infrastructure. I believe this is in the wheelhouse of social infrastructure and it is certainly an important part of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

All avenues, he added, should be exhausted to get funding and a \u201cfinely worded letter\u201d might do the trick, he added. While Mayor Dawe said he was \u201cmore than happy to write the letter\u201d, he cautioned the Councillor that this wasn\u2019t breaking new ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will try to be as eloquent as possible, but I did this a few times last year with the Member of Parliament at that time, as did Councillor Abel, but we didn\u2019t get anywhere,\u201d said Mayor Dawe, to which Councillor Thom pointed out that this is a new government. \u201cThat\u2019s true. We now have two members representing us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not that means that following last year\u2019s Federal Election has doubled Hillary House\u2019s chances of getting some Federal dollars, Council appears to hope so.<\/p>\n

Councillor Paul Pirri, a representative on the Board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, suggesting a collaboration with Councillor Thom on a further notion to push for a \u201cbigger scope\u201d from that perspective. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know in the past, Federal funding has been a challenge [for Hillary House],\u201d added Councillor Michael Thompson. \u201cAnything we can do to support their efforts and try to help them, be it for infrastructure funding or ongoing funding through Parks Canada, I am happy to support. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou go to Gravenhurst and you go to Bethune House and it is supported by the Federal Government, then you come to Hillary House and you see some of the challenges they have, they certainly are well deserved. Hopefully with a little bit of pressure and letter writing, it will make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last fall, the new Federal Government promised \u201csunny ways\u201d and now Council is looking for the Federal sun to shine down on Hillary House with an infusion of public money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3yH","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 16:53:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}