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This is a list of the oldest surviving buildings and structures of significance in each province and territory of Canada.
Contents
Alberta
First Nations peoples in Alberta were generally nomadic and did not create permanent structures, however they did often occupy the same site annually for many generations, and created permanent markers in the form of tipi rings and medicine wheels. The first Europeans to build in Alberta were the fur traders of the North West Company who constructed the first trading posts in Alberta at Fort Chipewyan and Fort Vermilion in 1788. Few buildings from the fur trade era remain.
There is said to be 25 buildings built prior to 1882 still surviving in Alberta. Most buildings considered "historic" in Alberta are from the post-railway era (e.g. after 1885 in Calgary, after 1891 in Edmonton).
New Brunswick
Before 1784, New Brunswick was part of the colony of Nova Scotia and the majority of the population was aboriginal. The native populations of the land that is now New Brunswick were a nomadic people and thus there are few remains of their settlements. However, in 1784 New Brunswick became its own colony due to an increasingly non-aboriginal population. The area was mostly forest until United Empire Loyalists started to arrive, and European-style buildings were not constructed for the most part until after their arrival. Many Acadian homes and settlements were destroyed by the British during the expulsion of the Acadians known as the Great Expulsion from 1755 to 1763. Acadians were a people of French descent who lived in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia for over a century before the British took over the lands that were New France. After the expulsion there was a short wave of settlement by a peoples known as the New England Planters. They were a small group without a lot of remaining architecture.
Quebec
The first Europeans to arrive in Quebec were settlers from France. They founded Quebec City in 1608 and erected there the first foundations such as the Habitation made of wood and set up by Samuel de Champlain. Despite the founding of other significant settlements in New France in the 17th century, notably Trois-Rivières in 1634 and Montreal in 1642, there are only a few 17th-century buildings that still survive outside the Capitale-Nationale region. Therefore, the oldest buildings still standing in Quebec are found heavily in and around Quebec City. All such buildings date from the French regime and are protected as historical monuments under the law enforced by the Ministry of Culture and Communication of Quebec.