National Trust Endangered Places List 2026

Each year, the National Trust for Canada’s Endangered Places List shines a spotlight on historic sites across the country that stand at a crossroads.  Since its founding in 2005, the List has become one of our most effective tools for protecting the places that matter to Canadians by creating momentum for positive action. 

 This year’s list reveals a heritage sector under mounting financial pressure. Funding cuts and divestments are leaving historic places without resources, architecturally significant landmarks are emptied with no clear plan for their future, and gaps in legal protection enable demolition by neglect.  

At the same time, this year’s List offers real reasons for hope. In Stanstead, Quebec, heritage conservation and affordable housing are being pursued together rather than as competing priorities. Halifax sustained public pressure recently paused demolition of the Memorial Library, opening a window, for an alternative future.  

Of places that were added to the Endangered Place in previous years, about a quarter have been saved, about a quarter have been lost and the balance continues to have an uncertain future. Saving heritage places requires intention and cooperation. Each place on this year’s list has the potential to continue to contribute to the quality of life in its community.  It is our hope that being on the list will galvanize the vision and resources required to secure their future. 

Click here to explore this year’s list. 

 

13,500 Places on the Canadian Register (National) 

For over twenty years, the Canadian Register of Historic Places has been the only tool allowing Canadians to search historic places across every jurisdiction in the country. Parks Canada announced in late 2025 that it would be permanently shut down, citing obsolete technology, with no plan for a replacement. The long-term future of the Register – and by extension the places that are documented in it — depends on collaboration between jurisdictions, commitment from stakeholders and commitment that the Register is too important to lose.  

Heather Pavilion (Vancouver, BC) 

Vancouver General Hospital’s oldest surviving building, dating to 1906, is slated for demolition under a decades-long campus redevelopment plan. In 2002, Vancouver Coastal Health signed a binding agreement to rehabilitate the Pavilion in exchange for hospital expansion rights, an obligation from which it now wants to be released, with a public hearing on repealing that agreement expected in 2027. 

Maple Ridge Buddhist Temple (Maple Ridge, BC) 

Built in 1933 by the Japanese Canadian community, this temple was seized and sold by government during wartime internment and has spent the decades since serving as a series of pubs and, most recently, a liquor store. It is one of only three recognizable pieces of Japanese Canadian heritage left in Maple Ridge. Proposals for redevelopment of the site are now under consideration, and the building has no legal protection. A volunteer committee is now searching for a way to relocate or save it. 

High Level Bridge (Edmonton, AB) 

This 1913 steel truss bridge, whose construction helped bring about the amalgamation of Edmonton and Strathcona, still carries tens of thousands of vehicles a day. A May 2026 city report found that rehabilitating the 113-year-old structure over the next 75 years could cost more than $1 billion, and Council is now weighing eventual decommissioning against continued repair. 

University of Saskatchewan Stone Barn (Saskatoon, SK) 

One of the largest heritage barns in Western Canada, this 1912 granite-and-cedar landmark has been empty since 2010 with worsening structural damage. Despite a decade of studies, working groups, and fundraising efforts, the university has yet to find a viable path to restoration. 

Port Burwell Lighthouse (Port Burwell, ON) 

The oldest wooden lighthouse on Lake Erie’s Canadian shore changed hands this summer, as the Municipality of Bayham transferred ownership to the Port Burwell Historical Society after concluding it could not fund the lighthouse’s restoration itself. The Society now owns and is solely responsible for a structure whose full repair costs are still being assessed. 

Hudson’s Bay Building (Montreal, QC) 

Montreal’s 1891 Hudson’s Bay flagship has sat empty since the company’s 2025 liquidation. A Cree-led development corporation has proposed a $400-million redevelopment into a cultural and heritage hub, but unlike comparable Bay buildings in other cities, the Montreal sale had not been finalized as of this writing. 

Collège des Ursulines (Stanstead, QC) 

The 1884 Second Empire-style main building has stood gutted and exposed to the weather for over a year following a wall collapse, with no formal heritage protection and no access to provincial restoration funding. A non-profit housing group is now studying a plan to convert parts of the former campus into affordable housing, bringing new attention to the site. 

MacDonald Farm (Miramichi, NB) 

This 200-year-old stone farmhouse, built by a Scottish settler family, was owned by the province and run by a volunteer society from 2012 to 2025, when it closed to the public due to unsustainable finances. In 2026, New Brunswick named the farm among ten heritage sites it intends to divest as a cost-cutting measure, leaving its future uncertain. 

Halifax Memorial Library (Halifax, NS)

Vacant since 2014, this 1951 war memorial library appeared headed for demolition until a public campaign led Halifax Regional Council to pause those plans this June, opening a window for alternative proposals. No new use has yet been confirmed, and the underlying recommendation to demolish the building has not been withdrawn. 

As always, we’ll continue to track these sites throughout the year and share updates as their stories develop. Thank you for standing with us in support of the places that tell Canada’s story.