December 20, 2017 Ottawa, Ontario Parks Canada Agency

World Heritage Sites represent some of humanity’s most impressive achievements and nature’s most inspiring creations. They are exceptional places that are considered to have Outstanding Universal Value – these sites are as diverse as the Pyramids of Egypt and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – and they reflect the best of cultural and natural heritage.

As part of Canada 150, and for the first time ever, Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast were invited to nominate Canada’s most exceptional places to be future candidates for UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Today, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Confederation, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, Catherine McKenna, announced the addition of eight new places to Canada’s list of candidate sites for UNESCO World Heritage recognition. Today’s announcement is the first update to Canada’s Tentative List for World Heritage Sites since 2004.

The additions to Canada’s list of candidate sites include: Anticosti Island, the most important fossil site in the world for the study of the first mass extinction event; Wanuskewin, an archaeological site that chronicles 6,400 years of history of the Great Plains of North America; and Sirmilik National Park, along with the proposed Tallurutiup Imanga/Lancaster Sound National Marine Conservation Area, one of the most biologically productive Arctic regions in the world.

The eight places added today to Canada’s Tentative List for World Heritage Sites are:

Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound Glass Sponge Reefs (British Columbia)

Stein Valley (British Columbia)

Wanuskewin Heritage Park (Saskatchewan)

Anticosti Island (Québec)

Heart’s Content Cable Station Provincial Historic Site (Newfoundland and Labrador)

Qajartalik (Nunavut)

Sirmilik National Park and the proposed Tallurutiup Imanga/Lancaster Sound National Marine Conservation Area (Nunavut)

Yukon Ice Patches (Yukon)

Inscription of a site on the World Heritage List is the highest possible recognition of heritage value internationally. The benefits of World Heritage inscription will be unique to each site and may increase international recognition and tourism, lead to new partnerships in the management of the site, and promote pride in representing and safeguarding one of the world’s most precious places.

Visit the Parks Canada’s website for more information on the eight new sites and details on how a site on the Tentative List can become a World Heritage Site.

