I am a consultant…

I am a consultant archaeologists with 16 years of experience and 14 years as a Licensed Research Archaeologists, and the Past President of the Windsor Chapter of the Ontario Archaeological Society, a non-for-profit organization run by volunteers. Our mandate is to advocate in recording and preserving our cultural heritage.
I’m writing to express my concerns about Bill 5 (Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, 2025). The Act proposes changes that effectively would put us out of business. As an archaeologist, I know I have a weird job, so I’ll try to explain better.
Since 1983, anyone proposing a land-use change in Ontario has been required to do an archaeological assessment. They must hire a person like me to come out and make sure that there are no archaeological remains (Settler or Indigenous) or cemeteries on the property. If we find something, the project either has to avoid it, or pay a company like mine to excavate and remove it. Developers don’t much like us. But before we came along, they routinely destroyed important sites (like Ontario’s first parliament buildings, or the Indigenous cemetery on Withrow Avenue in Toronto). It was often pretty grim - and it aggravated the First Nations more than I can explain.
Bill 5 proposes that some projects can be excused from archaeological assessment if they are identified as priorities for the province. This is unworkable for several reasons.
1) If some developers have to pay for archaeological assessments and others don’t, the system will be perceived as unfair. How will exemptions be awarded? By what criteria? Every developer, proponent, and financier thinks that their projects are important. You’re going to be swamped by lobbyists begging for exemptions.
2) The legislation proposes that cemeteries and significant archaeological sites will not be granted exemptions. However, most Indigenous cemeteries and archaeological sites are ONLY found in the assessment process itself. We cannot protect a thing that we don’t know is there. Settler cemeteries are pretty much all registered. Indigenous ones are not – and there are thousands of them out there dating back as much as 13,000 years. The system proposed by Bill 5 will create the appearance that the government cares more for Settler (white) resting places than Indigenous ones. Sooner or later, someone is going to hit human remains and the result will be Indigenous outrage (or worse), political embarrassment, and unnecessary expense. Oka (cost $200 million), Caledonia (cost $77 million), and Ipperwash (cost $95 million) all started with concerns about burials.
3) Ontario already has a somewhat uneasy relationship with the First Nations when it comes to development. The province delegates much of its Duty to Consult to municipalities and developers. Any legislation that promises to impact environment and their heritage is almost certain to provoke a court case. A loss for the province would almost certainly upend the development process as it is handled now - and discharging Section 35 constitutional rights cannot be avoided by invoking the Notwithstanding Clause.

We often encounter regulatory delays in the archaeological assessment process, but they almost exclusively arise from staffing shortages and review delays at the Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism (our licensing and oversight body) itself.