Parks Canada

The federal agency now known as Parks Canada was established in 1911 under the name of the Dominion Parks Branch. Charged with administering a small group of parks and reserves, it was the world's first national parks service. A century later, Parks Canada administers a greatly expanded system of PROTECTED AREAS that spans the country and includes 42 NATIONAL PARKS and park reserves, 167 national HISTORIC SITES and 4 NATIONAL MARINE CONSERVATION AREAS and marine parks.

Beginnings at Banff

Parks Canada traces its origins back to 1885, when the federal government set aside a small area around the hot springs at BANFF for public use. This hot springs reserve was expanded into Canada's first national park 2 years later (seeBANFF NATIONAL PARK). By the time the Dominion Parks Branch was created in 1911, Canada had 5 national parks. Three of them were along the CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY line, and all were in the ROCKY MOUNTAINS. These early parks attracted wealthy tourists from around the world but relatively few Canadians had opportunities to visit them.

Enter James B. Harkin

Into this situation stepped James B. HARKIN, appointed in 1911 as the first commissioner to head the newly-established Dominion Parks Branch. Influenced by such notable preservation advocates as John Muir, he proposed setting aside publicly accessible wilderness areas across the country. During Harkin's 25-year tenure, Canada added 13 national parks. Some of them, including POINT PELEE and WOOD BUFFALO, were created specifically to preserve wildlife (seeWILDLIFE PRESERVE). Harkin and his staff also worked successfully to amend the 1911 legislation that had decreased the size of the mountain parks and limited the establishment of new parks. They opposed existing regulations that permitted logging and mining in national parks. Along with organizations such as the ALPINE CLUB OF CANADA and the Canadian National Parks Association, they lobbied for their vision of parks as wilderness preserves. Their work culminated in the passage by Parliament of the National Parks Act of 1930, which limited industrial development within parks.

National historic sites also became an important part of Parks Canada's mandate under Harkin. In 1919, encouraged by heritage activists, he spearheaded the establishment of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC). It remains closely associated with Parks Canada, the administrative arm of the National Commemorative Program. Many of the early designations were tied to nation building, and included NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE posts along the Canada-United States border, military forts of the French and British regimes, and sites of early Aboriginal-European contact such as NOOTKA (Yuquot National Historic Site of Canada) on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Their commemoration was intended to serve several purposes: preserve Canada's history, educate citizens about their country's past and offer accessible outdoor recreation to urban Canadians harried by the crowding and bustle of Canada's burgeoning cities.

Park Development and the Importance of Ecological Integrity



Human History within Sites and Parks

Like the parks, national historic sites also experienced an increase in funding and visitation after the Second World War. By the 1950s and into the 1990s, Parks Canada was restoring and developing major national historic sites across the country, including Dawson Historical Complex in the Yukon and the thousand-year-old Norse settlement of L'ANSE AUX MEADOWS in northern Newfoundland (seeHERITAGE CONSERVATION). The Historic Sites and Monuments Board expanded its program to commemorate nationally significant persons like cancer activist Terry FOX and track star Fanny ROSENFELD, as well as events such as the signing of First Nations TREATIES and the admission of provinces into CONFEDERATION. Canada's national historic sites increasingly reflect the diversity of past Canadian experiences and cultures. The definition of national historic sites has since been expanded to include cultural landscapes, whose importance may stem from oral histories and landscape features rather than buildings or other structures.


National Marine Conservation Areas


International Leadership

For nearly half a century, Parks Canada has assumed a leadership role in the international conservation movement. Parks Canada has participated in the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO and the International Council on Monuments and Sites and is a signatory to the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance as well as involved in the UNESCO designations of BIOSPHERE RESERVES. Moreover, Parks Canada has helped secure the designation of 15 UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES in this country to date. They include places of universal significance like GROS MORNE and KLUANE national parks, as well as SGang Gwaay (seeANTHONY ISLAND) and the RIDEAU CANAL national historic sites.

