The de Havilland Tiger Moth sits near the entrance to the Air and Space Museum.

DAVID COOPER/Toronto Star

A wrecking ball is looming over the historic building at the heart of Canadian aviation in World War II, amid questions about its status as a heritage site.

The Downsview Park building houses the privately run Canadian Air and Space Museum which is being evicted, along with 10 other tenants so the structure can be demolished, façade intact, and replaced with a four-rink ice skating complex.

All tours, co-op placements and educational programs have been cancelled since Sept. 20, when the museum was served with an eviction notice.

Museum CEO Robert Cohen says the 65 Carl Hall Rd. building, which is on federal land, is indeed a heritage site — and to lose it is “a slap in the face” to Canada’s rich aviation history.

The site, built in 1929, was home to de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd. — one of Canada’s most successful aircraft manufacturers.

But the proof of the building’s heritage status seems to have vanished.

Until Oct. 26, the building was listed as “a recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations and its architectural and environmental value” on the Canada Historic Places website.

This has been called an error by Parks Canada, the federal agency that oversees heritage sites. The entry in the official register of the agency’s Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office is gone.

David Soknacki, the chair of Parc Downsview Park, the Crown corporation in charge of the redevelopment, has said the building is not currently a heritage building.

The Tory MP for York Centre, Mark Adler, originally said the building was officially designated as a historic site, but later recanted.

The de Havilland building may have lost its recognized heritage designation when the Department of National Defence transferred ownership of the property to Parc Downsview Park in 2006.

However, the City of Toronto still considers the building, among others in Downsview Park, “significant heritage resources,” according to Mary MacDonald, acting manager of Toronto’s Heritage Preservation Services.

It is listed on the inventory of heritage properties and MacDonald says there has been no demolition request for the building yet.

“This was the nerve centre of de Havilland Aircraft company,” said Cohen. The company built 2,500 Mosquito fighter bombers and Tiger Moth trainers between 1939 and 1945.

Today, it houses a full-scale replica of the Avro CF-105 Arrow jet interceptor — one of Canada’s most famed aircraft achievements — painstakingly built by volunteers and veterans.

Soknacki has said the museum does not draw enough business and owes $100,000 in rent for 2011. The building also needs $3.5 million worth of work, he said, a figure disputed by Cohen.

The corporation has offered to pay for storage space for the artifacts until the museum can find a solution.

However, Cohen says the Avro Arrow replica cannot fit in storage without the wings being sawn off.

Soknacki has also said that any proposal for a new museum on the 272-hectare grounds at Downsview Park will be considered.

“This isn’t hostility. This is one public body wrestling with a building that’s falling apart, needing the space and willing to do what can reasonably be done to accommodate its tenants,” Soknacki said.

The new skating complex, scheduled to open in September 2013, could ease Toronto’s ice time shortage with city and community programs.

Cohen says he received a letter from James C. Floyd, the 97-year-old former chief engineer at Avro, instrumental in the design of the Avro Arrow.

“He couldn’t believe what is happening,” said Cohen.

The museum has five months left to vacate, and volunteers are appealing to the federal government to intervene.

With files from the Canadian Press