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Canadian archaeology and the age of austerity
A withering maple leaf? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There is an essential tension that exists between industry and government: they regulate us and sometimes they compete with us. When you ask many business professionals about government, even in Canada, the usual response is that there is too much of it.
There is truth to this. It seems that the only cap on the growth of bureaucracy is taxpayers, and therefore, recent promises by the Federal and some provincial governments to reduce the size of government seemed at best, too little and too late. However, while in age of austerity you can really make smart strategic cuts in expenditures, governments are inevitably drawn to the stupid.
The Government of Canada is cutting ten percent off the top of most departments, and a few percentage points more off ones they really don’t like (like the public broadcaster, the CBC). All departments have been asked to declare positions as redundant and thousands of letters have gone out: “your position has been classified as surplus, have a nice day.” This will be followed by a drawn out period of horse trading, interdepartmental moves, and such, with the result that the actual number of positions lost will not be known for some time.
Somewhat to the surprise of the heritage movement, given the federal government attention to promoting the historic battles of 1812, is that government has decided that it really does not like conservators and archaeologists and has decided to close all of the regional labs across the country. As one comment on the Canadian Archaeological Association Facebook page notes “There (will be) more people employed in a single Tim Hortons than are employed by Parks Canada nationally to preserve and care for millions of archeological historic objects in storage and on display.” Read more…
Preservation raises US property value
A recent article in the Hartford Courant (Connecticut, USA) publicized two studies done by economist and historic preservationist Donovan Rypkema, studying the effects of historic district designation and property values. The first study evaluated the economic benefits of Connecticut’s historic tax credit incentive program, while the second specifically evaluated property values. The conclusion of both studies is that preservation “makes good economic sense” not only creating jobs but increasing property values. Similar results have emerged from additional studies, including one released by the Alabama State Historic Preservation Office in 2002.
The reports concluded that property values within designated historic districts rose faster than neighboring areas or metropolitan averages. The Connecticut study also noted that historic district designation did not, in any of the districts studied, reduce property values – a fact that should relieve the fears of some homeowners worried that potential restrictions may make it more challenging for them to sell their home. In reality, these studies showed that the restrictions sometimes instituted by local historic commissions are in fact the key factor in the rise in value noting, “character of the neighborhood is important, and the assurance that character will be maintained has an economic value.” Read more…
UK tax code change could hurt historic preservation
The recently announced Chancellor’s Budget in the UK includes a proposal to increase the VAT from 0 to 20 percent for the alteration and maintenance of listed buildings. This will put a heavy financial burden on those that own or maintain historic listed buildings.
While not every building alteration on a listed building requires specialized historical preservation skills, many projects do for at least some aspects. An increase of 20 percent for project costs may cause some repair projects to be postponed or shelved. This in turn may have a knock-on effect for those employed in the historic preservation sector. It may also hurt other sectors such as heritage and museum management. Sites and museums would see their maintenance costs increase forcing them to reallocate funds from other areas of their budgets. Though these results are hypothetical, and it is unknown at the moment what problems the tax increase might bring, the Council for British Archaeology is “urging its members to make their views on this known and also to sign the online petition.”
Full details can be found at the HM Revenue & Customs website and consultation on the proposed changes has been put up by the CBA (p. 23), which is open until 4 May 2012.
Heritage Business Journal 