Ottawa opens nominations for Canada’s next set of UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Do you think your neighbourhood or your favourite hiking trail has what it takes to be listed as a World Heritage Site?

Then you have until January 27, 2017 to nominate new places to be considered for inclusion on Canada’s list for inscription as World Heritage Sites – exceptional places around the world that are considered to have “outstanding universal value,” such as the Pyramids of Egypt and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Canada already has 18 World Heritage Sites – eight cultural, including the historic district of Old Quebec, and 10 natural, such as the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks and Mistaken Point at the south-eastern tip of the island of Newfoundland.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna, who is also the minister responsible for Parks Canada, today announced the members of a new Ministerial Advisory Committee charged with reviewing applications from the public for Canada’s next set of possible UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

“I thank Canadians and communities from across the country for taking the time to nominate unique and exceptional places for consideration as future World Heritage Sites so that we can share more of our treasures with the world,” McKenna said in a statement.

The Ministerial Advisory Committee is composed of six experts in natural and cultural heritage conservation and commemoration in Canada.

It will review all applications submitted by the public and will recommend to McKenna the sites to be included on Canada’s updated Tentative lists for World Heritage Sites, which will be announced in 2017.

Five of the 11 sites on Canada’s current list, which was last updated in 2004, have been inscribed as World Heritage Sites. Properties can only be nominated for inscription on the World Heritage List if they are included on a country’s Tentative List.

The application form can be completed and submitted to Parks Canada at www.pc.gc.ca.