I work in the heritage…

I work in the heritage industry. We are dedicated to protecting Indigenous cultural heritage as one of our primary missions. The proposed language around potential exemptions for archaeological assessments is both confusing and alarming.

My colleagues and I are wondering how can you know if there are sites or burials present in the land without doing an assessment?

I appreciate the need to build infrastructure and housing, and support the mobilization of resources and purpose to achieve this goal. But at the same time, we have to acknowledge our duty to honour the terms of UNDRIP which includes:

"Indigenous peoples have the right to practice and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites, artefacts, designs, ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature."

Ontario's Indigenous history stretches back over 10,000 years, and the fact is the potential for sites and burials is always present on these lands. For too long, non-Indigenous society treated Indigenous cultural remains as unimportant and something we could ignore (literally bulldoze away) when it suited our needs.

UNDRIP, and the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action have jointly served to change that state of affairs. After centuries of injustice toward Indigenous peoples, the very least we can do is ensure their cultural heritage (sites and burials) are accounted for when we build. And that is only possible through appropriate, licensed archaeological assessment.

I do not believe that the current government is trying to act in poor faith toward Ontario's Indigenous peoples, maybe more consideration and thoughtful real dialogue is in order. Please really and honestly engage with professional archaeologists and First Nations to better inform your legislation with regard to archaeological assessments and their role in identifying and protecting Indigenous cultural heritage.

Ontario has a well-experienced professional archaeological community with extensive experience in working with all manner of development projects and proponents. I promise you that we are not in the business of blocking development, but rather ensuring it can proceed in a manner that honours our duty in redressing and rebuilding our relationship with First Nations.

Please reconsider the language around exempting archaeological assessments. As Ontarians, we can certainly do better here. We are, as this government likes to say, innovative! We have the best brains here! We can plan better, build better, and protect better. Let's PLEASE do better.