We are very concerned about…

We are very concerned about the proposed investigating procedures. For the longest time, the ministry has been thought to have severe preferential treatment for specific consultants. This is easily detected by looking at reports. It is our understanding that at this point some consultants are even tracking the preferential treatment. We are well aware of the fact that our firm will be one of the first to be investigated as we feel, we have been targeted by the ministry ever since we commented on problems with the ministry in advocating for our clients. The supposed bad apples, many of them have been created by the ministry review process. Many of our clients have pointed out that we are required to do a lot more work than other consultants. This is directly as a result of the ministry review process. What is being proposed at this point does not solve the backlog issue. In recent months the ministry has only upped the work that is required. So much of it totally unnecessary. The front loading should be stopped. No other discipline is subjected to the amount of review that archeologists are. There is no reason why all reports without artefacts cannot be entered into the registry without technical review. The comment about the bad apples would probably largely be resolved with a objective ministry review process. In addition the many times a report is looked at just to be filed is counterproductive. There is no policy foundation for what they’re doing. They are simply manufacturing additional work for everyone. If one was to look back one year ago they would see a lot of the processes that they are using were different. The ministry needs to follow their own policies and the S&G. If we can’t deviate from the standards and guidelines, they should not be able to either.