Kevin Jacob

Nominated for the Carlos Ventin Award for Municipal Heritage Leadership

Since beginning employment with the Town of Innisfil in the Clerk’s office in the early 2010s, Kevin Jacob has been the liaison and the town’s staff representative on the Innisfil Heritage Advisory Committee. He has taken his role seriously and his love for heritage has been an asset to the committee and the community ever since. Kevin is the go between, advising the committee on what can be done and providing advice on who to talk to and what the committee needs to do to reach their goals. In 2011-2012, the committee was allocated a small portion of the town’s revenue from OLG to promote local heritage. The committee worked on the design of signs to recognize historical properties and landscapes throughout the township, putting up sixteen signs over a 5-year period. Kevin worked with committee members to compile the information, design the layout of the signs, scope out the best location, and worked with the sign company and town operations to have the signs installed.

Kevin has become the local expert on heritage by keeping up on the changes to the OHA, making sure the committee and council are well informed. In 2023 with the passing of Bill 23, Kevin arranged for Community Heritage Ontario to host a virtual training session on the OHA, the role of local heritage advisory committees and the best practices for researching individual properties. Not only was this available for Innisfil committee members, staff and council but neighboring township representatives were also invited.