Canadian heritage sites seek ‘ultimate seal of approval’ with UNESCO designation
Canadian sites had until Friday to submit their applications to receive UNESCO World Heritage designations, entering into a competitive process to join the world’s most exclusive heritage club.

thestar.com
By ALLAN WOODS
Jan. 28, 2017

Many will apply but few will be chosen.

The deadline for Canadian submissions to join the world’s most exclusive heritage club closed Friday, ending a frenzied period of preparation for sites with stunning cultural and natural value seeking what one expert called “the ultimate seal of approval.”

There are just 1,052 sites around the globe that have received UNESCO World Heritage designation. Each year, only about two dozen more are added to the list, which includes the likes of the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids.

There are currently 18 Canadian sites on the UNESCO list, including Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, the historic fortified section of Quebec City, the Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario and Gros Morne National Park, a geological marvel on the west coast of Newfoundland.

No one will say how many submissions Parks Canada must now sift through in order to select up to 10 new sites for the replenishment of Canada’s so-called Tentative List, which is made up of sites deemed most likely to one day receive UNESCO’s anointment.

The last time the federal government sought bids, in 2004, there were “well over 100 nominations,” said Christophe Rivet, president of ICOMOS Canada, which advises UNESCO on cultural heritage properties in the country.

Submissions must meet at least one of 10 UNESCO conditions, such as exhibiting cultural importance, natural value or architectural, industrial or historical significance in order to be considered.

The most important is that the site must demonstrate “outstanding universal value.”

“Your site needs to compare with every other site in the world currently throughout human history,” Rivet explained. “You don’t need to multiply your arguments. You need to figure out the argument that will bring you to the top.”

Bids will be reviewed by a panel of experts named by the federal government and the new additions to Canada’s Tentative List will be announced at the end of the year, capping the country’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

The nominees include:

SALISH SEA, BRITISH COLUMBIA

The inland coastal waters of British Columbia are made up of Puget Sound, the Juan de Fuca Strait and the Strait of Georgia, but were renamed the Salish Sea in 2010 to better reflect a waterway that has been populated and has served as an important trade route and resource for thousands of years by First Nations on Canada’s west coast.

The submission by the Salish Sea Trust for inclusion on Canada’s Tentative List is based on the cultural importance of the area for indigenous people as well as the European settlers who came after. The submission also cites the area’s natural beauty, its biodiversity and its scientific importance, said Laurie Gourlay.

“The beauty is here and available to everyone,” he said. “You can be rich and out on your yacht, or you can be out in your rowboat or canoe and kayak around and you get the same opportunity to walk the beaches and collect oysters or mussels or enjoy the wildlife like the orca whales and humpback whales back in here or the 3,000 species of marine life in the area,” he said.

ANTICOSTI ISLAND, QUEBEC

The municipality of Anticosti, a remote island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, cleared its first hurdle this week when it won the support of the Quebec government to put in a bid to become a UNESCO World Heritage site - an eventuality that could put a stop to eager oil speculators.

Anticosti Mayor John Pineault said that the island meets six of the 10 heritage categories laid out by UNESCO for sites hoping to make the exclusive list. The major argument is Anticosti’s geological heritage, which suggests it rose out of the sea some 450 million years ago. Its sedimentary rock formations mean that the island is like a time capsule, allowing scientists to dig their way through the centuries.

“It’s also a period that isn’t protected in any other UNESCO site. That’s a rock-hard argument that nobody can deny,” Pineault said.

He said there is also a rich cultural heritage associated with Anticosti, including 400 shipwrecks around the island and numerous literary references and a massive population of white-tailed deer that have supported the small population that calls Anticosti home as well as attracted tourists and a lively sport hunting industry.

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONTARIO

Better known, perhaps, for its wine, cycling routes and outlet malls, Niagara-on-the-Lake is pitching its 10,000-year history of serving as a refuge and meeting place in North America in its bid for UNESCO World Heritage recognition.

“Because of the physical and natural attributes of Niagara-on-the-Lake, and being the land bridge between Lake Ontario and Fort Erie, it has been the meeting place or refuge for people,” said Betty Disero, a city councillor and co-chair of the campaign to have the area added to the list.

The submission also notes that it served as the front-line in the War of 1812, and was the site where the campaign to abolish slavery in North America was launched in 1792 with legislation tabled in what was then Upper Canada’s parliament by lieutenant-governor John Simcoe.

The territory was also settled by Iroquois natives who refused to take sides in the long-running conflict between warring Huron and Iroquois factions and were dubbed the “Neutrals” after being encountered by Europeans.

Disero said the submission also relies on artifacts and remnants dating back as far as 10,000 B.C.

FIRST COMMERCIAL OIL FIELD, ONTARIO

Before there were the Alberta oilsands, before the blue-eyed sheiks of Texas and before OPEC, John Henry Fairbank dug a hole in the ground in what would later be called Oil Springs, Ont., and pumped out what he sold as “illuminating oil” - a product to keep lamps burning.

Fairbank put the village in Lambton County, near Sarnia, on the map and actually exported drilling expertise to dozens of other countries where oil reserves were discovered, said Patricia McGee, who is working on the submission.

Recognized in 1925 as a national historic site, the world’s first commercial oilfield is seeking UNESCO heritage status as an example of industrial archeology.

“We are the only place where oil is produced this way,” McGee said.

Andrew Mayer, Lambton County’s corporate cultural officer, said that sites representing industrial heritage are “under-represented” in the UNESCO World Heritage list, making him hopeful of that the bid will stand out among the mass of submissions.

And just as important as the fact that the oil-drilling operation was the first in the world is the fact that it is still going using the same primitive technology. The underground reserves still pump out about 24,000 barrels of oil each year, more than a century-and-a-half after Fairbank first struck black gold.

SIGNAL HILL, NEWFOUNDLAND

The fortified tower in St. John’s that looks out over the Atlantic Ocean is one of the most popular coastal trails in North America and played significant strategic roles in wars going back centuries.

But the niche that Signal Hill’s submission seeks to exploit is that it was the site of the first wireless transmission, when Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi received the first Transatlantic wireless signal on Dec. 12, 1901.

“We view that as a significant event in global telecommunications that is now one of the fundamental components of the global economy,” said Dave Lane, a councilor-at-large with the city of St. John’s.

Signal Hill, where fortifications were built in 1697, was designated a national historic site in 1951 by the federal government, in part because of its military significance.

But it is heralded as well because it marks the transition from the practice of sending visual signals to incoming ships approaching the St. John’s Harbour to the use of wireless signalling.

SAGUENAY FJORD, QUEBEC

The nomination of the Saguenay fjord, a dramatic basin created by retreating glacial ice, has been years in the making. The Quebec government had been aiming for its inclusion on Canada’s Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2004.

This time around, the submission is highlighting the fact that the site, 200 kilometres north of Quebec City, represents the longest fjord in the world located at such a southerly position.

A 2009 academic report commissioned in support of an eventual UNESCO bid noted that the fjord has also been recognized as one of the best locations in the world for studying and observing whale activity. The waters are home to many different species, including the orca, humpback, beluga, northern bottlenose and sperm whales.

On top of that, the area is being touted for his historic cultural heritage, being the site of initial contact, alliance and trade between European explorers and First Nations people in 1603, five years before Samuel de Champlain founded the first French settlement in what is now Quebec City.