This List culminates the work of the Minister’s Advisory Committee,
which was tasked with advising the Government of Canada on a new Tentative
List for World Heritage Sites in Canada. This work is an integral part of
the nomination process established by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972, under which thirteen Canadian sites have already been designated
as World Heritage Sites.
In order to be able to present new sites for inscription on the World Heritage
List in the coming five to ten years, Canada must first put forward a Tentative
List. Canada’s last Tentative List, prepared in 1980, is now out of
date and no longer in tune with the way the Convention is being interpreted.
UNESCO’s Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World
Heritage Convention state that Tentative Lists should consist of properties
that have the potential to meet World Heritage criteria for outstanding universal
value. Candidate sites must also manifest integrity and authenticity (as
defined in the guidelines), and meet standards for legislative protection
and management capacity.
In order to establish a new Tentative List, the Government of Canada undertook
a scholarly analysis and a national process of consultation to identify a
short list of qualified candidate sites. As a first step, two Canadian experts
with international cultural and natural heritage experience were tasked with
defining how an emerging global framework for the identification of potential
World Heritage Sites might influence Canadian proposals in the future. They
also carried out a preliminary assessment of possible Canadian sites against
this framework.
Following this initial phase, Parks Canada, acting as Canada’s State
representative to the Convention, consulted with provincial and territorial
representatives, interested national organizations, Aboriginal groups and
key stakeholders across Canada. Overall, one hundred and twenty-five proposals
for new sites were received. Proposals were also received for significant
expansions to three existing World Heritage Sites: Canadian Rocky Mountain
Parks, Wood Buffalo National Park and Nahanni National Park Reserve. As these
proposals will be addressed by Parks Canada through another process, they
do not figure on this List.
Canada’s new Tentative List identifies natural and cultural sites
that meet UNESCO criteria and requirements for inscription as World Heritage
Sites. The Minister’s Advisory Committee is also confident that there
is stakeholder support for these proposals. Given that the World Heritage
Committee will examine a maximum of one nomination per year, and not necessarily
one for every country every year, the List is necessarily short.
The Committee
is grateful to the governments, organizations and individual Canadians
who have displayed such enthusiasm for the concept of world heritage
and who have demonstrated their commitment by bringing forth such interesting
and diverse suggestions. In recommending this new Tentative List of remarkable
and promising candidates for inscription as World Heritage Sites, the Committee
wishes to thank the team at Parks Canada and the Canadian experts who have
ensured that this selection process has been based on research and science,
and to express its deep appreciation for the opportunity to serve Canada
in this important work.
Jacques Gérin
Co-Chair
Senator Laurier LaPierre
Co-Chair
Bruce Amos
Phyllis LeBlanc
Bill Oppen
Sandra White
May 2004