[someone123]

I don't assume the worst with these things but NS and Halifax are really out there on heritage compared to many other places. This is true in terms of what gets registered, the level of actual preservation (even registered buildings are often stripped of detail over the years and kept in a mediocre state of repair), and the bizarre demolition laws. These unusual local norms seem to anchor the local discussions without much wider perspective, kind of like how in Oregon there are still debates about all the bad things that might happen if they allow members of the public to pump their own gas one day instead of only the highly skilled, government mandated full service gas attendants.

I recently saw a video about a town in France that got abandoned a while back. None of it was demolished because the old church was considered historically significant and due to that there was a demolition ban within some radius, something like 500 m or so. Seems excessive but it puts NS into perspective. Consider also that the "burden" of preserving heritage buildings in Europe is far far greater than NS. Halifax in particular is a fast growing city now and its heritage stock of buildings has dwindled. But the protections for even the 0.5% or 0.1% most historic buildings are mediocre to nonexistent.