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Heritage conservation in Canada


Heritage conservation in Canada deals with actions or processes that are aimed at safeguarding the character-defining elements of a cultural resource so as to retain its heritage value and extend its physical life. Historic objects in Canada may be granted special designation by any of the three levels of government: the federal government, the provincial governments, or a municipal government. The Heritage Canada Foundation acts as Canada's lead advocacy organization for heritage buildings and landscapes.

There are a number of heritage designations at the federal level for historic sites in Canada:

The federal government also operates related programs for the recognition of historic persons (National Historic Persons) and events (National Historic Events).

Each provincial government has distinct systems and approaches to heritage conservation. They may delegate the authority to preserve historic buildings to municipalities, and / or have a provincial heritage register.

For example in the province of Alberta, only sites owned by the provincial government and run as a functioning historic site or museum are known as Provincial Historic Sites or Provincial Historic Areas. Buildings and sites owned by private citizens and companies or other levels or branches of government may gain one of two levels of historic designation, "Registered Historic Resource" or "Provincial Historic Resource". Historic designation in Alberta is governed by the Historic Resources Act. The province also lists buildings deemed historically significant by municipal governments on the Alberta Register of Historic Places, which is also part of the larger Canadian Register of Historic Places although this does not imply provincial or federal government status or protection. To supplement this system, the province also run the Alberta Main Street Program which helps to preserve historic buildings in the downtowns of smaller communities. The basis for the preservation system in Alberta is the Heritage Survey Program, which is a survey of 80,000 historic buildings in Alberta which lack a protected status but are documented for possible future protection.


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