The following email has been sent to government officials:

Parks Canada announced in late 2025 that The Canadian Register of Historic Places (aka historicplaces.ca website) will be decommissioned in Spring 2026.

Reaching the end of its technological life, there is no plan for replacement of this vital tool and system of record for ca. 13,500 historic designations in Canada. Heritage advocates are scrambling to save the data and find a replacement.

Administered by Parks Canada, The Register was launched in 2004 as an online, searchable, publicly accessible database under the Historic Places Initiative, a collaboration between the federal, provincial and territorial governments to improve protection of the country’s historic sites and to foster a culture of heritage conservation in Canada.

APLA is writing to advocate that the Register’s information contents are retained and remain accessible in both the immediate and short-term. We are also asking that a collaborative longer-term solution is found.

With the loss of such an important national database, there is an urgent need to preserve the information with respect to Prince Edward Island that is currently maintained in the Register’s database. Does the Provincial Government have a plan to save the data before it is disabled this spring?

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Terri Winchcombe
President, Atlantic Provinces Library Association
On behalf of APLA members