Heritage Management Plan Update

On March 7th, 2023, City Council voted unanimously to adopt the updated (2023) City of Lethbridge Heritage Management Plan.

Project Background

The City of Lethbridge's current Heritage Management Plan was adopted in 2007. This was the first time the City had implemented a comprehensive and ongoing program to identify and manage heritage resources. The Plan set out a number of recommendations and options for the creation of a heritage program, and following its implementation the program has gone through some piecemeal evolution and expansion in the years since.

About the Heritage Management Plan Update

The aim of the project to update the Heritage Management Plan (HMP) is to incorporate an inclusive vision of heritage within our community and region.

Following Council direction in the Municipal Development Plan (which in turn is built on recommendations from the earlier Environment and Historic Resources Strategy and Traditional Knowledge and Use Assessment, as well as the Reconciliation Implementation Plan), this project envisions updates to the Heritage Management Plan to better encompass Indigenous heritage within Lethbridge's municipal boundaries.

Beyond Indigenous heritage, the most recent update to the City of Lethbridge Heritage Survey (2016-2017) highlighted that the current HMP has limited consideration for heritage identification and management beyond the level of individual sites.

The updated HMP also begins to explore ways to identify, celebrate and protect other "under-represented" stories within the community's heritage portfolio, including those of women, visible minorities and other equity-seeking groups.