Ontario’s Halton Region is shuttering its heritage services department and will soon start trying to get rid of around 30,000 historical items, including photographs, tools, natural history specimens, archeological finds, art and the Halton County archives.
The region is hoping local lower-tier municipalities and organizations such as the Royal Botanical Gardens, Conservation Halton and the Halton Regional Police Service will take the items in order to keep them in public hands, but says anything it can’t rehouse will be up for public auction – a move heritage advocates, including a consulting firm hired by the region, say can be unethical and degrade public trust.
Halton Regional Council voted July 9 to “cease delivering heritage services” by the end of this year and to “deaccession” its collection.
The vote was held in a closed session, following staff and consultant reports from the past year that indicate region staff have supported this idea for some time.
The move is a sharp turn from the vision in the region’s five-year operational plan endorsed in 2021, which included $8 million for a new “heritage centre” for the department that was never built.
“Regional staff will implement a process for dispersing the collection – that is, removing these items from the region’s ownership and responsibility,” stated a confidential staff memo that came before council that day, which was later made public by the region.
“Regional staff will make every effort to continue public ownership of the items and to keep the items located within Halton.”
The memo says the collection includes “tools and equipment, uniforms and clothing, furniture, personal items, medical tools and equipment, communication tools and equipment, natural history specimens, archeological materials, works of art, and other miscellaneous items.”
It also contains about 20 “potential Indigenous belongings,” such as “beaded objects, bark and quill boxes, footwear, and gloves.”
The region will attempt to return those items to the communities they came from, the memo states.
It lists potential partners to receive items from the rest of the collection as Conservation Halton, the Halton Regional Police Service, Royal Botanical Gardens, Country Heritage Park, the Milton Historical Society, local municipalities and local libraries.
“Transfers to these organizations would be strictly voluntary and will differ based on the level of interest and how items from the collection align with their individual mandate and capacity,” it states.
But, it adds that some items may go to auction.
“There are objects in the collection that do not have a clear value or direct relationship to Halton or its heritage. In these cases, public auction may be a valid method for dispersal. Where this approach is taken, advance public notice will be provided.
“Given the size of the collection and the complexity of deaccessioning and dispersal processes, it is anticipated that this will be a significant undertaking with an extended timeline.”
Halton Region communications specialist Isabel Contin shared more details with CBC Hamilton about what the collection includes. She said there are:
“The items span from the 19th century (e.g., court artifacts and family farm tools), through the 21st century (e.g., medical equipment, police service items, and items related to the COVID-19 pandemic),” she wrote in an email on Thursday. “While some items in the collection have a clear link to Halton’s local heritage, many do not.”
As for the Indigenous items, she said Halton Region’s Indigenous Relations team will be involved in their transfer “to ensure they are properly identified, respected, and ultimately returned to the appropriate communities or custodians.”
Halton Region sits on the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN), and is the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat and Anishinabek, according to the region’s land acknowledgement.
Darin Wybenga, traditional knowledge and land use coordinator for MCFN, told CBC Hamilton he was unaware of the objects held by the region, and is keen to see what they are.
“I am hoping that Halton valued these objects enough to keep a good record of where they obtained these things,” he said on Thursday, noting there was strong likelihood some of them could belong to MCFN.
He was thankful the region will reach out to first nations before auctioning the items — something he said shows progress in the relationships between Canadian institutions and Indigenous communities.
“There is some consideration given to the people who might have something at stake with these objects, so that’s a positive step.”
In the same call, MCFN councillor Erma Farrell said she hopes to arrange a meeting to see the items soon. She also noted her disappointment with the closure of the department, noting it seems several area municipalities are cutting back on support for heritage services.
A consultant’s report about potential options for the collection issued in April included numerous potential scenarios for the collection, with shutting down the division entirely the only one for which it found more “cons” than “pros.”
The Museum Collection Administration Study, written by Canadian cultural planning firm Lord Cultural Resources, notes “the Region made a commitment when accessioning an object to care for it in the public trust.
“The public’s reaction may be particularly negative if the matter is not communicated properly, or if a large portion of objects are not transferred to other institutions and thus are removed from the public realm,” it states.
It gives an example of objects from the collection that have already been transferred to the Royal Botanical Gardens, but instead of being accessioned by the RBG – which means they’d have to steward them in perpetuity – they were used as display props. That means they can be accessible to the public in way they weren’t before — but the change in status removes the “requirement for permanent preservation and conservation.
“As props they may be discarded when deterioration becomes an issue,” the study states.
It also notes that many of the agencies that the region hopes to send items to already have their own staffing, space and funding challenges, as well as narrow collections mandates that will limit what they can accept.
London, Ont., heritage advocate and public history professor Michelle Hamilton has been watching the Halton process unfold, and says many in her field are shocked by how many items stand to go from the public trust to private hands through this process.
“The idea that this will not lead to loss of artifacts is naive,” Hamilton told CBC on Tuesday.
“They would be dispersed everywhere, they’d go into private collections, and never be seen or heard from again. You’re taking something that belongs to the public, you’re selling it off without permission and it goes into private hands. It’s just ethically wrong.”
Hamilton, who teaches at Western University, says it is also unethical to deaccession the collection prior to consulting the public, noting she’s worried this move could start a trend.
“If it happens in Halton, it’s going to be a ball rolling down a hill and others will follow,” she says.
