The proposed amendments…

The proposed amendments should not be approved in their current form.

We need housing, transit and healthcare facilities, but not at the expense of further suffering by our Indigenous benefactors, the people who long cared for the territory we now call Ontario.

Bill 5's proposed changes to the Ontario Heritage Act pave the way for the destruction of Indigenous burial grounds and significant archaeological sites. It would remove the requirement for archaeological assessments before ground-breaking on projects which could advance "transit, housing, health and long-term care, other infrastructure or such other priorities as may be prescribed".

Bill 5 says properties containing cemeteries and significant archaeological sites won't be exempted from archaeological assessments -- but it's a Catch-22. We can't exempt something if we don't know it's there. And the only way we can know it's there is an archaeological investigation.

This proposal seriously undermines Ontario's duty "to duly consult First Nations on decisions and actions that may adversely impact asserted or established Aboriginal or treaty rights."

It should not proceed as written.