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Archeologists charge landowner $35K

Posted on 14. Jun, 2010 by Shannon Graham in Archeological Excavations, Miscellaneous

Heritage Conservation Acts serve to protect history from being lost forever. What happens when these programs punish rather than reward citizens for doing the right thing?

“We felt invaded,” said Louise Allix, a property owner from Vancouver Island who is being held responsible for the $35,000 archeologist’s bill after her land was deemed a heritage site.

The region’s Heritage Conservation Act requires archeological assessments be performed prior to any new construction. Landowners are responsible for the assessment and removal fees. Violation for damaging a site can cost up to $50,000 in fines or two years in jail.

Now the kicker…there’s no formal system to inform landowners that their site has been designated a heritage site in British Columbia.

Many B.C. residents don’t know their land has been designated, because there is no system in place to inform them. The province keeps the database of sites that are reported to them, by First Nations and other interested parties, but that information is not shown on land title documents.

There are now 38,000 registered sites with some 2,000 new ones added every year. The minister responsible, Kevin Krueger, acknowledged that the lack of disclosure has been a long-standing problem.

“Buyer beware,” said Wayne Edwards, historian and former chief of the Nanoose First Nation. “That land you are buying may be of historical importance to First Nations.”

The Allix family has occupied this land for more than 40 years. When they decided to build a new home, a local archeologist heard of their plans and informed them of their obligations with which the family complied.

“Instead of the digging taking two days — which we had thought it was going to be — it was something like two weeks,” said Louise. “All these people, crawling about at 80 bucks an hour.

“My mom had to pay for their lunches,” Tim Allix added. “It’s right on the bill. Accommodation and meals.”

The original estimate of $4,000 soared after part of a human skull was discovered.

The Allix’s construction has been delayed for months and Louise’s husband who was in his 80s and in poor health while this was going on, died last summer. Louise and her son Tim believe the stress hastened his death.

“He broke down and cried one day. He just broke down and he cried. He didn’t know how to deal with it,” said Tim. “It makes me want to cry — to think of him getting that upset.”

Louise said the $35,000 final bill came as a huge shock — and because she lives on a fixed income, she doesn’t have the extra money to pay it.

“If the bill were split up among taxpayers — between everybody in the province — it would be peanuts. But for me it’s a heck of a lot,” said Louise.

Read the full story here.

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