What we learned

The Trust’s natural and cultural heritage property portfolio currently has many strengths. The portfolios are diverse and include properties with a variety of provincially significant attributes.

The cultural heritage property portfolio includes centrally located and accessible properties, protects provincially significant buildings, features important cultural landscapes and sacred spaces, preserves unique construction methods and a comprehensive range of architectural styles, and helps build new relationships and community connections. Recent cultural heritage acquisitions have positively contributed to portfolio diversity.

The Trust’s natural heritage properties are located in diverse regions of the province, protect a unique recreational natural heritage corridor, and contribute to conserving diverse natural heritage features and habitat for species at risk.

The Trust currently owns and protects 170 registered archaeological sites. There are archaeological sites on almost 20 per cent of Trust-owned properties; the rest of the properties have archaeological potential that has not yet been explored.

Some of the gaps in the Trust’s owned property portfolio identified through this evaluation include:

• sites of significance to Indigenous communities
• cultural heritage sites of significance to Black and racialized communities
• significant heritage sites associated with women’s history
• sites that reflect the socio-economic diversity of the province
• buildings and structures associated with the post-Second World War era, including examples of early modern architecture
• rare natural vegetation communities or habitats such as savannas and lands that support species at risk
• strategic green links that connect existing conservation lands and create corridors and areas that support habitat.