The structure was expanded in 2001 to accommodate another cruise ship berth. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Canada Place served as the Main Press Centre.[11]
History
Panorama view of Canada Place's sails with the North Shore in the background.Canada Place with Downtown Vancouver
Canada Place was built on the land which was originally the Canadian Pacific Railway's Pier B–C. Built in 1927, its primary purpose was to serve CPR and other shipping lines trading across the Pacific Ocean.[2]
In 1978 Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments commenced planning for development of convention, cruise ship and hotel facilities. Four years later, the Government of Canada created a crown corporation, the Canada Harbour Place Corporation (known as Canada Place Corporation until 2012), to develop the Canada Place project on the Pier B–C site. Construction began when Queen Elizabeth II arrived on the Royal Yacht Britannia with Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada and William R. Bennett, Premier of BC to initiate the first concrete pour.[12]
During Expo 86, the Canada Pavilion at Canada Place was opened by Prince Charles and Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Canada. Among the largest and most elaborate pavilions presented by any nation at any World's Fair, the Canada Pavilion hosted more than 5 million visitors prior to the October 13, 1986 closing date.
Canada Place Corporation (CPC), a Crown agent, continues to act as the coordinating landlord for Canada Place facilities.[13]
In 2024, Canada Place was co-named Komagata Maru Place in honor of a 1914 incident when the Komagata Maru steamship (also known as the Guru Nanak Jahaaz) brought 376 Punjabis (337 Sikhs, 27 Muslims and 12 Hindus) to Vancouver, most of whom were denied entry, detained for two months with a lack of medical aid, food or water, and then forced to return back to India, where many were killed by British authorities.[4][5][6][7]
Events
Throughout the year many community events are held at and hosted by Canada Place.[14]
Pan Pacific Vancouver
The Pan Pacific Vancouver opened in January 1986 and has 503 rooms and suites, two restaurants, and a lounge.
The Heritage Horns, formerly known as the 12 O'clock Horn, sound the first four notes of O Canada every day at noon and can be heard throughout Downtown Vancouver and beyond. The ten horns have five facing north and five facing east on the roof of the Pan Pacific hotel and have an output of 115 Decibels. They were originally on the roof of the BC Hydro building (now The Electra) and were silent when the headquarters was converted to condominiums in the early 1990s. The horns started sounding again on November 8, 1994 after being acquired, refurbished, and relocated to Canada Place. Due to complaints, the timer was changed from mechanical to electrical soon after to make them accurate.[15] They sounded 26 times during the 2010 Olympics, once for each medal won by Canada. The first was at 7:30pm on February 13 for a silver won by Jennifer Heil.[16] The Heritage Horns were also sounding at 7:00 p.m. each evening from March 26 to April 16, 2020 in support of essential service workers across Canada.[17] Another notable time signal in the area is the 9 O'Clock Gun across the harbour in Stanley Park.
