section2-08

Conserve Heritage Resources

Maintain or Improve the State of Other Cultural Resources Administered by Parks Canada

Other cultural resources administered by Parks Canada include:

• Commemorative Plaques and Cairns (1,554)
• Archaeological Resources (estimated to be in excess of 30 million)
• Historic Objects (212,425)
• Built Heritage Outside of National Historic Sites (206)

Parks Canada does not have a comprehensive inventory or condition ratings of all its cultural resources. For example, there are no condition ratings of the inventory of commemorative plaques and cairns, and no inventory and condition ratings of archaeological resources (i.e., archaeological resources include both archaeological sites and features, structures or objects, located at or taken from an archaeological site or recorded as an isolated archaeological find).
Initial steps have been taken toward the creation of a cultural resource information system that will manage the Agency’s cultural information in a standardized manner. The system will act as the single point of access to integrated information, applications and tools for cultural research management across Parks Canada. The business requirements and system analysis work is currently being carried out with completion of the high level system requirements targeted for the beginning of 2008.

Historic objects: encompass ethnographic material, civilian, military and fur trade items, furniture and furnishings, tools and documents dating from the 10^th century to the present day. They are located in the Agency’s service centres and at national parks and national historic sites. Condition ratings of these objects are shown in Table 18.

Table 18: Status of Parks Canada’s Historic Objects

Each year, some object condition ratings are updated as a result of commemorative integrity evaluations, condition surveys, regular monitoring, exhibit purposes, improved storage environments or requirements to assess specific types of objects. However, ratings are not done systematically and some condition ratings of objects may be up to ten years old. Ratings in the above table reflect a combination of recent and historic condition evaluations. Although the Agency has records of how many objects are sent for conservation treatment (i.e., on average 207 per year over the last five years) it does not have information on the changes to condition as a result of treatment. Less than one percent of the Agency’s collection is treated in any particular year.

Built Heritage Not Part of National Historic Sites: Built cultural heritage not part of national historic sites includes buildings, landscapes, structures and archaeological sites. The number of assets owned by Parks Canada that fall within this category is 206. Condition ratings have been completed for most of these assets and is available from Parks Canada’s Asset Management System.

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