Национальные исторические памятники Канады

Heritage registers in Canada

National Historic Sites of Canada are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks Canada, a federal agency, manages the National Historic Sites program. As of November 2023, there were 1,005 National Historic Sites, 171 of which are administered by Parks Canada; the remainder are administered or owned by other levels of government or private entities. The sites are located across all ten provinces and three territories, with two sites located in France (the Beaumont Hamel Newfoundland Memorial and Canadian National Vimy Memorial). There are related federal designations for National Historic Events and National Historic Persons. Sites, Events and Persons are each typically marked by a federal plaque of the same style, but the markers do not indicate which designation a subject has been given. For example, the Rideau Canal is a National Historic Site, while the Welland Canal is a National Historic Event.

Emerging Canadian nationalist sentiment in the late 19th century and early 20th century led to an increased interest in preserving Canada's historic sites. There were galvanizing precedents in other countries. With the support of notables such as Victor Hugo and Eugène Viollet le Duc, the Commission des monuments historique was created in France in 1837; it published its first list of designated sites, containing 934 entries, in 1840. In the United Kingdom, the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty was created in 1894 to protect that country's historic and natural heritage. While there was no National Park Service in the United States until 1916, battlefields of the Civil War were designated and managed by the War Department: Chickamauga and Chattanooga (created 1890), Antietam (1890), Shiloh (1894), Gettysburg (1895), Vicksburg (1899), and Chalmette (1907). Domestically, Lord Dufferin, the Governor General from 1872 to 1878, initiated some of the earliest, high profile efforts to preserve Canada's historic sites. He was instrumental in stopping the demolition of the fortifications of Quebec City, and he was the first public official to call for the creation of a park on the lands next to Niagara Falls. The 1908 tricentennial of the founding of Quebec City, and the establishment that same year of the National Battlefields Commission to preserve the Plains of Abraham, acted as a catalyst for federal efforts to designate and preserve historic sites across Canada. At the same time, the federal government was looking for ways to extend the National Park system to Eastern Canada. In 1919, William James Roche, the Minister of the Interior, was concerned over the fate of old fur trade posts in Western Canada, and he was also being lobbied by historical associations across Canada for federal funds to assist with the preservation and commemoration of local landmarks. At the same time, the Department of Militia and Defence was anxious to transfer old forts, and the associated expenses, to the Parks Branch. Roche asked James B. Harkin, the first Commissioner of Dominion Parks, to develop a departmental heritage policy. Harkin believed that the Parks Branch did not have the necessary expertise to manage historic resources; he was troubled by the relatively weak historic value of Fort Howe, the country's first historic park, and feared that the Branch's park improvements were incompatible with the heritage attributes of Fort Anne, the second historic park.

Lists of National Historic Sites by location Number of sites First site designated Example site and designation dateAlberta sites 61 1923 Frog Lake (1923)British Columbia sites 100 1923 Rogers Pass (1971)Manitoba sites 58 1920 Exchange District (1996)New Brunswick sites 63 1920 Hartland Covered Bridge (1980)Newfoundland and Labrador sites 47 1951 Signal Hill (1951)Nova Scotia sites 90 1920 Pier 21 (1997)Ontario sites 275 1919 McCrae House (1966) Hamilton sites 15 1929 Dundurn Castle (1997) Kingston sites 22 1923 Kingston City Hall (1961) Niagara Region sites 26 1921 Niagara on the Lake (2003) Ottawa sites 26 1925 Parliament Buildings (1976) Toronto sites 37 1923 Fort York (1923) Prince Edward Island sites 22 1933 L. M. Montgomery's Cavendish (2004)Quebec sites 198 1919 Île d'Orléans Seigneury (1990) Montreal sites 61 1920 Notre Dame Roman Catholic Basilica (1989) Quebec City sites 37 1923 Château Frontenac (1981)Saskatchewan sites 49 1923 Canadian Bank of Commerce (1976)Northwest Territories sites 12 1930 Church of Our Lady of Good Hope (1977)Nunavut sites 12 1964 Inuksuk Point (1969)Yukon sites 11 1959 Dawson Historical Complex (1959)France 2 1996 Vimy Ridge (1996)