I’m growing up in Ontario—a…

I’m growing up in Ontario—a place I’ve always been proud to call home. I’m writing with a heavy heart, because I recently learned about Schedule 7 of Bill 5 and how it would allow important development projects to go forward without archaeological assessments. I may be young, but I know enough to say: this isn’t just a policy change—it’s the beginning of a slow erasure of who we are.

When I was younger, I remember visiting museums and heritage sites with my family and learning about the people who walked this land long before us. I remember hearing Indigenous stories that made me see the earth differently—not as a resource to be used, but as something to be respected, remembered, and protected. That history made me feel part of something bigger, something rooted. Now, I’m afraid that if Schedule 7 passes, future generations won’t get to feel that same connection.

When we stop looking for what’s buried in the ground, we stop listening to the voices of the past. We silence them. Sacred sites will be bulldozed. Artifacts will remain lost forever. And the stories they could have told—the truths they hold—will never be known. What kind of province chooses to forget its own beginnings?

Worse still, many of those sites belong to Indigenous communities. Skipping archaeological assessments means breaking promises we’ve made about reconciliation. It’s like turning our backs on the pain, the resilience, and the truth of those who’ve been here for thousands of years. How can we expect to build a fair and respectful future if we’re willing to destroy the very traces of the people we claim to stand in solidarity with?

I’m not against building homes or hospitals or transit. I want all those things too. But we don’t have to choose between growth and respect. We can build a stronger Ontario without burying our past under concrete and calling it progress.

Please, don’t take away the protections that help us find out who we are and where we come from. Let us continue to uncover the stories in the soil. Let us protect them—not just for archaeologists, but for every child who wants to understand what it means to be from this land.

The choices you make now will shape the Ontario I grow up in. Please choose a future that remembers.