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The Archives of Ontario (Archives publiques de l'Ontario in French) is the provincial archives for the province of Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1903, The Archives of Ontario the second largest archive in the country and provides valuable services to individuals and governments that are interested with access to historical documents, images, records, and other recordable media. the archives is currently located on the Campus of York University in Toronto.

Early Beginnings
In July 1903, the Government of Ontario enacted through an Order in Council, the Archives of Ontario and appointed Alexander Fraser as the Archivist for the Province of Ontario. The Archive's mandate was to document and safeguard the physical evidence of the province's historical development. Through careful organization, Fraser began by requested information from the Ontario government on the departmental histories and inventories of their holdings. Fraser believed in acquiring and preserving not only government records, but records from the people of Ontario. He sought records from schools and churches, including correspondence, manuscripts, documented oral histories, and other records focusing on the earliest settlers in Ontario. Adopting and implementing the mandate of a provincial archives was not met with enthusiasm and Fraser found little support amongst local historical societies, government departments, and provincial authorities. In 1914, the archival staff was increased to accommodate the gradually increasing volume of material, however, Fraser was still left to advocate the importance of archival acquisitions. In 1922, Fraser started campaigning for a legislative act to establish protocol for the preservation of archival materials in order to increase the authority of the archive to attain important documents. This was deemed necessary in order to mitigate the unauthorized destruction of records, define records management protocol, and to further governmental recognition of the archives as the legitimate office of record Fraser’s campaign was met with success and in 1923 the Archives Act was passed.

Depression Years
In 1934 Mitch Hepburn became the Premier of Ontario. During his tenure as premier, he drastically reduced government spending as a result of the Great Depression. These cutbacks significantly reduced the Archives of Ontario’s budget. Prior to reductions, the archives were operating on a budget of under $20,000 and employed 11 staff members. After the cuts, six staff members were dismissed and Fraser, the Archivist of Ontario, reluctantly retired.

Records Management
The Second World War prompted a rapid expansion of the archives. This rapid expansion placed a great deal of strain on the management and functional capabilities of recordkeeping practices. Between 1950-1976, the Archives of Ontario aimed to establish a more systematic management of the records currently in the archives. In 1961, the archives began to petition for a much needed record centre. In 1963, a draft program detailing the logistics of a new records centre was proposed and during the development of an effective records management program for the Ontario government, the Moore Report of 1965 was produced. The report was aproved by the provincial government on April 15, 1965, and the appointment of the Records Management Committee was made. Under the leadership of the archives, records management was expanding. Marking the significant emergence of the defined regulatory, operational and administrative responsibilities of records management, several regulations were passed by the government that began a process of codifying the procedures for the handling and storage of government documents.

Implementation of Standards
Prior to 1986, the aids in place for finding and managing the archives consisted of an intimidating hodgepodge of things had been implemented haphazardly throughout the decades that made sense at the time. In 1987, the Archives of Ontario established a task force to tackle the job of revising the archives practices and procedures, and implementing the changed standards within the archives. In 1990 the task force introduced an institutional manual of policy and procedure which covered a wide range of archival practice.” These changes were significant and met with many challenges. Issues of prioritization, resource constraint, and the development of a new finding aid system and catalog cards placed a lot of strain on the archives in this period.

Archives Act 1923
The Archives Act of 1923 granted the provincial archivist the authority required to ensure the appropriate appraisal, acquisition, and destruction was completed for all government records. No government records were to be destroyed without permission. As well, the provincial archivist held the authority to request the acquirement of any record that was twenty years beyond the state of current use. Until 2006, the Archives Act of 1923 was the oldest unrevised archives statue in Canada.

The Archives and Recordkeeping Act 2006
The Archives and Recordkeeping Act, 2006 authorizes the Archives of Ontario with the authority and legal rights required to enact as a provincial archives. The purpose of the act is defined in three parts:
 * 1) to ensure the public records of Ontario are managed, kept and preserved in a useable form for the benefit of present and future generations;
 * 2) to foster government accountability and transparency by promoting and facilitating good recordkeeping by public bodies;
 * 3) and to encourage the public use of Ontario’s archival records as a vital resource for studying and interpreting the history of the province.

The act sets out the legal precedent for the archives and the powers and duties of the Archivist of Ontario in regards to protecting important documents. the policy on the retention of records is outlined and sets out policy for determining whether or not each class of public record is kept for destroyed.The legislative body’s records must be transferred to the Archives of Ontario 20 years from the date the records cease to be in current use. Private records are also handled in the act, outlining the situation in which the Archivist of Ontario can acquire records of archival value and provide record-keeping advice to a third parties. The right of the public to access these archives documents is laid out and protected with some exceptions relating to private records or other government laws that restrict access.

Acquisition Mandate
The Archives of Ontario’s mandate for acquiring records covers "records of archival value". this covers items that posses significance to the history of Ontario and or reflect the social, political, or cultural trends of the province.