SȾÁUTW (Tsawout) First Nation administration say they hope B.C. officials learn from mistakes and help craft a remediation plan quickly after what appeared to be Indigenous cultural materials — including midden soil — were disturbed during roadwork on Salt Spring’s Fulford-Ganges Road.
It was an avoidable situation, according to SȾÁUTW First Nation chief operating officer Micah Claxton, who said while the Ministry of Transportation and Transit (MoTT) has established procedures that reduce the risks to archeological sites during such projects, it appeared they had not all been followed.
While work on the Fulford-Ganges Road project was underway in early May, Claxton said, SȾÁUTW received word from MoTT that an inexperienced excavator operator — working without an archeological monitor — dug into what Claxton said was a known archeological site, and that they had already removed and transported the material to the project’s “laydown area” — a designated space for temporary materials storage — before it was discovered the material could be of significance.
“It then took [the ministry] a couple of days to do their site investigation before SȾÁUTW was notified,” said Claxton, calling the whole episode a “management fail.”
“I don’t think the excavator operator knew what was in there, but that’s the whole point,” he said. “If you have new staff on site, it’s their responsibility to kind of notify them, ‘there’s an area right here, right beside our project, that you can’t be digging in.’”
Claxton said SȾÁUTW policy is to have one of its cultural monitors on site alongside provincial contractors any time work is near a known archeological site, but they weren’t notified they needed to be there.
While ministry officials confirmed to the Driftwood that the contractor for the Fulford-Ganges Road project “conducted work outside the requirements of the Heritage Conservation Act (HCA),” an official statement stopped short of saying whether protected artifacts were found at the project site, or indeed whether the area overlapped or was adjacent to a known archeological site.
That vagueness is likely related to a degree of secrecy required of public agencies and their representatives by provincial law, as both the nature and location of archaeological sites are confidential and protected from public disclosure under the HCA. Representatives for the contractor, Northridge Excavating Ltd., declined comment and deferred to the ministry.
Middens are culturally significant archeological sites containing seashells and often bones and artifacts from past Indigenous settlements; the chemical makeup of the fragmented shells helps preserve organic material hidden within them, including wooden tools and other objects that can give insight into daily life in and around historical First Nations villages.
The statement from MoTT said both it and the Ministry of Forests were committed to ensuring any culturally significant areas are protected and had been working with the contractor and local First Nations “to ensure the issue is corrected.”
“Archaeological work associated with this project is ongoing in coordination with construction,” the ministry said in its statement. “If any artifacts are encountered, the relevant First Nations are notified through established reporting processes.”
Claxton said SȾÁUTW̱ had quickly agreed to have a stop work order lifted so the road could be regraded for safety purposes, and that he understood the material — an unclear amount, he said, but multiple truck loads — has since been removed from the laydown area on private property and transported to a provincially managed site.
“There we can do all the sifting required to figure out what’s in there,” said Claxton. “What’s done is done, but I hope that both the ministry and SȾÁUTW can take it as a learning lesson and try to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
No penalties or regulatory decisions have been announced, but the ministry said where culturally sensitive areas are identified it works with the relevant First Nations to co-develop mitigation strategies when necessary — and that the contractor is responsible for any additional costs incurred through that process.
Claxton said while the situation was disappointing — particularly given what he characterized as an improving relationship with the ministry, as they had recently been successful working together on several projects — it was also an opportunity for reflection.
“I have three little boys,” said Claxton. “I find they learn a lot more from failures than they do from just having it happen easily for them. I think that’s the only positive that can come from it: learn from your mistakes.”