After almost a decade of struggle, a Senate bill that would empower communities to help preserve Canada's heritage lighthouses finally cleared both Houses of Parliament last week.
For centuries, lighthouses were the guardians of Canada's coastline and the first sight of land for seafarers. The stoic structures and their keepers were also witness to much tragedy and loss of life at sea.
Today, few lighthouses remain to share the great maritime sagas of Canadian history. But thanks to the new legislation, the heritage lighthouses that are left can be preserved, shining the spotlight on Canada's seafaring past.
The Act to Protect Heritage Lighthouses is expected to receive Royal Assent shortly and will come into effect in two years, after the ministry establishes criteria for heritage designation.
"This legislation is grassroots driven," says Conservative Senator Pat Carney.
"I pursued this legislation because facilities at light stations were being destroyed or abandoned if they were surplus to requirements, often without any warning to adjacent communities."
The bill was originally introduced by the late Senator Mike Forrestall of Nova Scotia in April of 2000 and was co-sponsored by Carney.
Forrestall passed away in 2006, leaving Carney to bring legislative authority to stop the destruction of the ancient lighthouses that dot the country's coastline.
In its long history the bill died on the order paper several times. But to the delight of heritage buffs and lighthouse lovers, Carney resuscitated it in November 2007 — for the seventh time.
The Senator retired in January after twenty five years in politics but was back in Ottawa last week to savour the bill's successful passage.
However, the new legislation comes too late for Carney's own community of Saturna Island, British Columbia, which has significant Spanish navigational history.
"On my island home of Saturna the original light tower was removed, a lighthouse keeper's house was dismantled and a local community park was transferred without warning… Light houses have been burned down, blown up or demolished by neglect."
The new law will protect 256 existing lighthouses, the "most fully operational guardians of maritime safety," which are currently owned by the federal government, says a government press release.
Communities may now begin a process of selection of heritage lighthouses "under criteria established by the Minister of Environment who is responsible for Parks Canada."
The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF), a non-profit NGO with a mandate to promote the preservation of Canada's historic buildings, has supported the lighthouse preservation initiative since 1999.
Natalie Bull, HCF executive director, says that although communities love their lighthouses, governments have been slow to act.
"Canada is the only G8 nation without legislation to protect its own heritage buildings; it's been a long rocky road to where we are today."
At present, for safety and security reasons, lighthouses are generally off limits to visitors. Heritage designated lighthouses such as B.C.'s Race Rocks built in 1860 are desperately in need of repair.
"These buildings are vulnerable because Coast Guard has no mandate for heritage protection," says Carney.
Besides, current laws and policies regarding the disposal of federal property have been ineffective, including the partnership between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Coast Guard in the "Alternate Use Program" for preservation of lighthouses.
In addition, public proposals to deal with heritage lighthouses have been obstructed by existing regulations.
For Chris Mills former lightkeeper and author of Vanishing Lights: A Lightkeeper's Fascination With a Disappearing Way of Life, the heritage legislation is "extraordinarily important to save what we have left."
One of only fifty four remaining lightkeepers, Mills fulfilled his childhood dreams at age twenty three when he began work in the field. His career spanned nine years from 1989 until 1997 in lighthouses in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and British Columbia.
"Without lighthouses, Canada would not have developed the marine trade that it is now well known for. Lighthouses and keepers have saved countless lives of fishermen and people from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia to New Brunswick to all the way out to British Columbia up and down that coast," says Mills.
The allure of heritage lighthouses, he adds, is that they are "architecturally amazing structures built in very remote locations under very difficult conditions."
Huge granite blocks were carried out to little islands by schooners and off-loaded by hand to form the foundation for the lighthouses, says Mills. The majority of heritage lighthouses are similarly designed and were built cheaply, mostly using timber and local materials.
Historically, lightkeepers and their families did a multitude of jobs to maintain lighthouses and provide rescue and shelter for victims of the elements. They lived tough lives and received little help from governments.
"The pay was crap, not nearly enough for the amount of work," says Mills. Families grew gardens and maintained livestock to survive.
"You had to feed the boiler for your fog whistle with wood or coal, you had to heat your own house with coal, you had to slug kerosene for the light and pump the tanks for the kerosene, you had to do all the cleaning and maintenance including carpentry."
There are federal lighthouses in every province in Canada except Alberta and Saskatchewan. B.C. has 52 of the 256 currently under federal ownership.
With 170, Nova Scotia has the largest number of lighthouses as well as some of the oldest. Sambro Island Lighthouse, built in 1758 and located at the entrance to Halifax harbor, is the oldest operating lighthouse in North America.
Mills says lighthouses are omnipresent in Nova Scotia and are used prolifically for advertising, logos and tourism.
"People have a direct attachment to lighthouses and their keepers," he says.
According to the HCF website, in the early 20th century Canada had more than 800 staffed lighthouses, beacons and fog horns. Of the estimated 583 surviving, only 21 have the highest level of federal protection.
The decline of Canada's lighthouses began with automation in the 1970s. The federal department of Fisheries and Oceans deemed many older structures too expensive to maintain and many light stations, including lightkeepers' houses and other attached buildings and communities, were destroyed.
Carney is working to get the word out to communities to salvage their past.
For instance, Saturna Island community is negotiating with Parks Canada for a dollar-a-year lease to take over the unused fog alarm building at the East Point Lighthouse and develop it as a volunteer-run Saturna Island discovery centre.
Communities interested in preserving their lighthouses may contact either Heritage Canada Foundation or patcarney@telus.net .
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