WHEREAS private property owners and local governments are involved in heritage conservation issues both as fee simple property owners and as part of local government building and development permit processes; AND WHEREAS unregistered or undiscovered archaeological sites can result in significant heritage investigation and conservation costs as a prerequisite to property development, as well as significant and costly delays due to additional permits and inspections: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that UBCM work with the Province of British Columbia to formulate amendments to the BC Heritage Conservation Act that provide fair, balanced and reasonable treatment of property owners who are impacted by unregistered or undiscovered archaeological sites on fee simple property.
Ministry of Forests, Lands Natural Resource Operations The provincial government remains committed to the protection of BCs heritage resources. Given the extensive history of BC and significant presence of First Nations settlements, property owners and developers must be aware of the potential for finding artifacts and archaeological sites when planning or constructing new developments. The developer pays principle is long established in BC and similar to other Canadian jurisdictions. The permitting process administered by the Archaeology Branch is the same for all landowners. Developers and property owners need to understand their legal obligations whenever relics or archaeological sites are discovered.