This attempt at a …

This attempt at a “streamlined model” for environmental assessment shows a lack of foresight or respect for the protection of Ontario’s cultural heritage.

This proposal does not hold municipalities accountable to their obligations under the Ontario Heritage Act, and undoes the existing protections on current archaeological sites.

Several First Nations groups (such as the Mississauga of the Credit and Chippewas of the Thames) have already commented upon the infringement of their right to be consulted about developmental impact on their personal heritage.

As it stands, municipalities and private developers rely almost exclusively upon consultant archaeologists to evaluate the potential or known existence of heritage sites in the region that is being developed. By reducing the amount of early-state consultation, this proposal opens up a high potential for municipal projects to cause immediate damage to local archaeological sites, be it through genuine ignorance or purposeful neglect.

The most obvious problem with the proposal at hand is this:

It is far easier and cheaper to prevent a mess in the first place than it is to clean one up later. The proposal is attempting to remove the Environmental Assessment methods that we use to prevent large, complicated, and sociopolitically charged messes. Who is responsible for cleaning up the fallout - with taxpayer dollars, at that?