World Heritage Sites in Canada: Canada’s Tentative List


The Government of Canada has updated the country’s Tentative List for World Heritage Sites, an inventory of natural and cultural heritage properties with strong potential to be inscribed on the World Heritage List. Properties can only be nominated for inscription on the World Heritage List if they are included on a country’s Tentative List.

On December 20, 2017, the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, Catherine McKenna, announced the addition of eight new sites to Canada’s Tentative List:

These eight sites are joined by six sites that remain from when the Tentative List was updated in 2004.

Sites added to the Tentative List in 2004

Áísínai’pi (Writing-On-Stone)
 Alberta
Pimachiowin Aki
 Manitoba and Ontario
Gwaii Haanas
 British Columbia
Ivvavik / Vuntut / Herschel Island (Qikiqtaruk)
 Yukon
Tr’ondëk Klondike
 Yukon
Quttinirpaaq
 Nunavut

Public process

A public process was used to solicit applications for consideration for Canada’s Tentative List for World Heritage Sites. 42 applications were received for sites from across the country, and reviewed by an independent Ministerial Advisory Committee of Canadian experts in the fields of natural and cultural heritage. The Advisory Committee recommended to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada the addition to the Tentative List of those properties with strong potential for successful inscription as World Heritage Sites.


Anticosti Island photo: René Bourque

Heart’s Content Cable Station photo: Department of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation – Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

Pimachiowin Aki photo: Hidehiro Otake

Source: Parks Canada