- John Tamming, Owen Sound City Councillor

These were Councillor Tamming's comments at the last council meeting, during the discussion about demolition of the St. Mary's rectory:

I am a huge fan of local preservation. I bought my law office some years ago, the place where the Wilkinson family lived for almost 100 years. I was pleased to find that the city staff thought it could and should be designated of historical interest. It is now The Wilkinson House and can never be demolished.

I will support heritage preservation wherever possible. And I tied up a personal asset to make that happen. I also commend city staff in this case for asking us to give serious pause before allowing the demotion. As the staff noted in their report, this would be the first time council has allowed the demolition of a designated property. This is a BIG DEAL and Ms Cann and Ms Coulter were right to underscore this.

That said, I voted at the committee level to allow demotion. My reasons were fourfold.

1. First, not a single parishioner is insisting that the building be saved. The Roman Catholic parish of Owen Sound covers a massive area and the parishioners number in the hundreds if not low thousands. These are highly committed citizens and I find it hard to ignore their wishes.

2. Second, I find it difficult to prohibit demotion of a privately held asset. That is an indirect form of government expropriation without compensation; that should by itself give us pause.

3. Third, not only is the rectory a privately held asset, it is also the personal residence for priests, some of whom are elderly. It is not a bar. It is not an old hotel. It is not a Main Street store. It is a personal home. If the hand of the state starts in effect to dictate where one lives and how, that too should give us serious pause.

4. Mr. Neil Devlin is a member of the parish and delivered a strong defence of the decision to demolish. He said when he joined the parish committee, he was in his words “determined” to save the building. A four million dollar renovation estimate convinced him otherwise.