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.

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.

[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 to India, where many were killed by British authorities.

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.

[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.