Unavoidable and unanticipated adverse impacts on archaeological sites are managed through mitigation, surveillance, monitoring and emergency impact management measures.
Dog skull
- Mitigation includes systematic data recovery, analysis and interpretation of at least part of an intact archaeological site, and the proposed work must be approved by the Provincial Archaeology Branch. A Heritage Conservation Act permit may be required.
- Surveillance is undertaken in order to protect archaeological resources during project construction. It may be necessary where archaeological site protection measures are implemented before and during project construction.
- Monitoring is implemented in order to ensure that adverse impacts to archaeological sites that could not be identified or evaluated prior to the commencement of the project are addressed. Monitoring is also undertaken to assess the effectiveness of mitigation measures and to determine the total level of impact to an archaeological site.
- Emergency impact management involves dealing with unanticipated impacts on archaeological sites and may include avoidance of archaeological sites thorough project redesign or relocation, application of site protection measures, and salvage or emergency excavation.
Survey, monitoring, and emergency impact management may not require a Heritage Conservation Act permit.