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The Mosaic Company announced Tuesday a $500,000 donation to Wanuskewin Heritage Park in order to support its bid to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
If approved by the United Nations, Wanuskewin would become the first place in Saskatchewan to receive the designation. There are 20 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Canada, and 1,154 globally.
Mosaic’s donation will go to the park’s UNESCO Ready Campaign.
“The UNESCO Ready Campaign will help us actually get our nomination dossier package ready,” Darlene Brander, the CEO of the Wanuskewin Heritage Park, said during a media conference at the mâmawêyatitân Centre in Regina.
“So really what this means is that (these are the plans) we need to compile. This (includes) the consultants that we need to work with in order to get together our nomination package that we need to submit in to Parks Canada. Then from there, Parks Canada takes it to UNESCO and then from there, UNESCO decides whether or not we’re UNESCO Ready.”
Brander said receiving a World Heritage Site designation would be a huge boon to tourism.
She said Wanuskewin hopes to have completed this process by 2025, although it might stretch into 2026.
“It’s been a partnership that we started back in 2018 with Wanuskewin and we’ve just been super-impressed with that organization,” said Bruce Bodine, Mosaic’s senior vice-president.
“It’s important for us to support the communities where we have operations. I visited the Waneskewin site in 2017 or 2018 and was really touched as all our employees are who visit there.”
Bodine said a World Heritage Site designation will bring a lot of pride to the province and raise awareness of an area that is of great importance to Indigenous people.
“You do feel something very special as you walk the trails (and) see the old bison jumps and things like that,” Bodine said. “Learning about the Indigenous journey (and) becoming more aware makes the entire population that much better.”
“It is magical,” added Laura Ross, Saskatchewan’s minister of parks, culture and sport. “There is something so special that when you enter the grounds, it’s hard to put into words. It’s spiritual. I guess that’s probably the best way you can describe it.”
Ross said the UNESCO designation would help share Saskatchewan’s story with the world, and would yield significant economic benefits.