Canadian Council of Archives

Awareness: Key Messages

Archives preserve Canada’s past. Millions of historical documents, photographs, maps and audio-visual materials are held in archives across the country. These records of Canada's past are indispensable in understanding our past and charting Canada's future.
Archives support Canada’s economy. Sustaining Canada's knowledge-based economy means sustaining and facilitating access to our knowledge resources. Archives are fundamental to the success of countless public, private, and educational enterprises.
Archives are struggling to serve their users. Insufficient funding limits users of archives-teachers, researchers, historians, journalists, lawyers, genealogists, and the general public-to only a fraction of the wealth of knowledge contained in Canada's archives and is an impediment to more sophisticated uses of the information.
CCA represents Canadian archival institutions. CCA exists to assist over 800 Canadian archives advance the preservation, organization, and accessibility of our country's rich archival heritage. As the voice of Canada's archives, CCA's programmes are essential to the archival community at large-archivists, archives, and users.
CCA serves the Canadian public. CCA's work ensures the preservation of Canada's heritage for the benefit of all Canadians-now and for the future. Through initiatives such as WWW.ARCHIVESCANADA.CA , CCA is the window through which the world may access Canadian archival information.
Canada’s archives need Canada’s support. As the sister institutions of museums and libraries, archives deserve equivalent support and a specific, dedicated stream of funding. Archival activities must be recognized within Canada’s Heritage Policy Framework.