Chris Wiebe

Credentials

MA

Biography

Since joining the National Trust for Canada in 2006, Chris Wiebe has been the organizer of the annual National Trust Conference (with the Indigenous Heritage Circle and Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals) and has helped it become Canada's leading forum for professionals, practitioners, and volunteers working to save and revitalize heritage places. In addition, he assists with the National Trust’s government relations, advocacy work, development of positions on heritage policies (particularly financial incentives), coordinates the National Roundtable on Heritage Education, and assists with the international Climate Heritage Network. In recent years, Chris has led the development of reports unpacking building reuse as climate action and the systemic barriers holding it back in Canada, including Making Reuse the New Normal: Accelerating the Reuse and Retrofit of Canada’s Built Environment.

Chris holds Master of Arts degrees from Carleton University (Indigenous and Canadian Studies - Heritage Conservation) and the University of Alberta (English) and has written on heritage and culture for magazines like Policy Options, Canadian Geographic, and Municipal World. Chris been an instructor in the Cultural Resource Management Program at the University of Victoria since 2012, a member of the Willowbank School of Restoration Arts Advisory Council and the Central Experimental Farm Advisory Committee, and writes a monthly column on heritage matters for my neighbourhood newspaper.