The Oliver Block in 1920 from the Galt Museum and Archives. (Photo: Galt Museum)

By Sarah Jones

City of Lethbridge looking for input on updated Heritage Management Plan

Jan 12, 2023 | 2:35 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – It’s been 15 years since the City of Lethbridge first adopted its Heritage Management Plan (HMP).

Since 2007, it has helped guide the city to make important decisions on preserving and remembering local heritage locations, resources and events.

Heading into 2023, the city is looking to finalize its final draft of a new HMP that better highlights Lethbridge’s diverse and vast cultural heritage.

The original HMP focused heavily on Euro-Canadian history, but according to the draft, the city looks to better encompass Indigenous heritage and recognition for the Blackfoot and Métis Nations of Alberta.

That includes updating and identifying Indigenous Heritage Sites in Lethbridge like the West Lethbridge Turtle Effigy, the location of the Battle of the Belly River, and Fort Whoop-Up.

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Draft details also indicate the city could explore the possibility of applying to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) for a World Heritage Site designation for an area of the Old Man River Valley, as it holds significance to the Blackfoot people.

Beyond Indigenous heritage, a survery conducted in 2016-2017 showed the current HMP has limited heritage identification and management beyond individual sites.

Lethbridge is currently home to dozens of Municipal Historic Resources and Provincial Historic Resources, a Federal Heritage Designation and over 100 archaeological sites that can be viewed through the City of Lethbridge website.

That includes access to four nearby UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Dinosaur Provincial Park and Waterton Glacier International Peace Park.

The city hopes that this drafted HMP will help to acknowledge, commemorate, celebrate, properly use, protect and preserve (where appropriate) heritage sites in Lethbridge.

Final comments or community feedback on the HMP must be submitted online by January 20, 2023.

In February, the updated HMP will go to the Lethbridge City Council for approval.

A full look at the drafted 2023 City of Lethbridge’s Heritage Management Plan can be found on the Get Involved Lethbridge website.

Read more: LethbridgeNewsNow