Tamara Anson-Cartwright

Recipient of the Carlos Ventin Award for Municipal Heritage Leadership

The leadership of Tamara Anson-Cartwright, Program Manager at the City of Toronto since 2015, has been outstanding in response to destructive provincial legislation. The municipal ability to protect Ontario’s heritage buildings has been under attack from the provincial government through Bill 108 and Bill 23, significantly weakening the ability of all municipal heritage personnel to protect a community’s cultural heritage properties.

Of note has been Tamara’s action in response to the restrictions on the municipal ability to maintain a register of “listed” properties. The moment the province announced its intention to introduce time limits for listed properties to remain on the provincial registry she immediately started reaching out to heritage planners across Ontario to put together an estimate of exactly how many properties would be affected by these changes. In just a few days, Tamara was able to estimate that approximately 35,000 properties across Ontario could potentially lose the minimal heritage protection they had. She also put together zoom sessions to explain the potential changes, which were then made widely available to heritage advocates, municipal heritage committees and professionals across the province.

In addition to the recent research and advocacy work, Tamara mentors the next generation of heritage professionals, constantly looking for ways to give the members of her “team” meaningful experience.