Demolition of Molsons factory on Lakeshore and Bathurst in Toronto (Photo courtesy of Catherine Nasmith)With climate change and housing shortages being two of the top issues in Canada and around the world, how does it make any sense to continue to have the virtually unfettered right to demolish buildings in Canada? Unless a building has heritage status, (less than 1 per cent do) you can obtain a demolition permit over the counter on demand anywhere in the country. The right to demolish is rooted in outmoded planned obsolescence practices that originated in the post-war building boom. A right to demolish has no place in the era of climate change. Conservation of all resources is critical to survival.Society rationalizes demolition by saying, the old must make way for the new. We would never apply that rationale to the elderly or infirm. We do all we can to extend the life or people as long as possible, surely, we should do the same for our buildings.Buildings contain irreplaceable environmental resources. In some Canadian jurisdictions, cultural heritage value or rental housing protection policies intervene between buildings and the wrecking ball. Heritage laws emerged in the 1960s and 70s to try to keep important buildings out of the demolition stream. In the 21st century, the question of cultural value is eclipsed by the environmental dangers of demolition. Its not only an issue of running out of landfill space to deal with the approximately 30 per cent of landfill from the construction industry, but it is also the loss of material that could, and should, be re-used, recycled, and repurposed. The best way to conserve material is to maintain our building stock where it stands. I am writing this article from home in a 100-year-old repurposed school building. Down the street an older hotel has been repurposed by the City of Toronto for social housing. Smart developers are rehabilitating office space for housing.With every new build, our debt to the environment mounts. In the middle of a housing crisis, in Torontos Regent Park, buildings that could and should be rehabilitated sit boarded up, waiting for demolition and new construction to create new housing units. With a bit more imagination, we could build over and around what we have.How is it that Canada has excellent policies on recycling small stuff like pop cans and paper but not buildings? How is it that the school boards and other institutional property owners are permitted to defer maintenance to the point that demolition and its associated waste and disruption become inevitable? The Toronto District School Board has a mounting maintenance backlog of more than 4.2 billion in 2023.The demolition of the Bata headquarters in Toronto, designed by Parkin Associates. North York refused to designate the structure as a heritage building. (Photo courtesy of Catherine Nasmith)Thinking is changing. The Declaration of Chaillot, passed March 2024 in France at the United Nations Environment Programs Building and Climate Global Forum, represents a major shift in approach. Endorsed by over 70 countries, including Canada, it calls for, among other things, prioritizing the re-use, repurposing and renovation of existing buildings and infrastructures to minimize the use of non-renewable resources, maximize energy efficiency and achieving climate neutrality, sustainability, and safety with particular focus on the lowest performing buildings. The report cites an annual production worldwide of 100 billion tons of waste annually generated from construction, demolition, and renovation processes, and that most of the materials are wasted at the end-of-use phase of these processes, with about 35 per cent sent to landfills.There are two things our Canadian governments can do right away. The first is to introduce planning policies that prioritize building adaptation and reuse over demolition and new build, with financial incentives to match; the second is to introduce a notice period of 60 days prior to issuing a demolition permit. That nominal notice period can be easily worked into the construction planning calendar and would give municipalities a chance to ensure that all measures are taken to avoid the environmental damage of demolition.As your grandmother said, waste not, want not.Catherine Nasmith is a recently retired architect. As a heritage consultant and volunteer advocate, she specializes in the conservation of buildings from her two offices (both rehabilitated buildings) in Muskoka and Toronto.The post Op-Ed: Its Time to Abolish the Right to Demolish appeared first on Canadian Architect.