Fort Langley National Historic Site of Canada, British Columbia
© Parks Canada / A. Cornellier / H.10.105.06.11(14)Since its creation in 1919, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada has been a significant partner within the heritage community in Canada. Before the First World War, a growing heritage movement put pressure on the federal government to preserve and develop sites associated with Canada's history. At the same time, the government was looking for ways to extend its national parks system from the west into the east and conceived the idea of creating historic sites around significant historic structures. A government program to identify and preserve significant aspects of Canada's history was delayed until 1919, when James B. Harkin, the Commissioner of Dominion Parks, persuaded the federal government to establish the "Advisory Board for Historic Site Preservation."
The first meeting of the HSMBC was held in Ottawa in the fall of that year. Its six members selected the official name, "The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada," and elected Brigadier General E. A. Cruikshank as its first Chairman. It quickly set about determining the most important historic sites in the country and deciding on appropriate ways of commemorating them. The usual method, but not the only one, was to place a bronze plaque on a stone cairn at a location connected with the place, person, or event being commemorated. Where the government owned a property, it often recommended some degree of restoration, as it did at Fort Beauséjour and the Fortress of Louisbourg.
In 1951, the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences noted the imbalance of the HSMBC's commemorative program and recommended that more attention be paid to preservation. In 1953, the Historic Sites and Monuments Act established the HSMBC by statute, enlarged it, and gave it increased resources. An amendment in 1955 specified the power to recommend national designation for buildings by reason of their age or architectural design. Thereafter, it studied more Canadian built heritage, expanding the concept to include streetscapes, districts, gardens, and urban and rural landscapes. With the introduction of the Heritage Railway Stations Act in 1989, the HSMBC was given the additional duty of evaluating Heritage Railway Stations. The Board continues to deal with the great number of requests for recognition of places, people and events in the various aspects of Canadian political, economic and social history. In keeping with trends in Canadian society and historiography, the HSMBC is now directing more attention to the history of Aboriginal Peoples, women and ethno-cultural communities in Canada.
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