Overview

This information is for licensed archaeologists about the ministry’s protocols for handling reports that do not meet fieldwork and reporting requirements.

Incomplete reports

A report may be deemed incomplete when the ministry has identified concerns with a report and requested revisions, and the associated revised report either:

  • is not filed with the ministry before the assigned deadline
  • does not address all of the concerns identified to the ministry’s satisfaction

An incomplete report is the ministry’s way of terminating a review.

Licensees may submit a new project report package, which includes a revised report that addresses the ministry’s concerns.

Licensees will not be able to start new fieldwork projects or act as a field director for new fieldwork under another archaeologist’s licence until they file a revised report.

Non-compliant reports

A report may be deemed non-compliant when either:

  • the ministry has determined that severely incompetent or destructive fieldwork has occurred
  • the ministry identifies concerns with an archaeologist’s compliance with the terms and conditions of their licence that may not be resolveable by filing a revised report

The ministry will deem a report to be non-compliant as a measure of last resort and may first choose to engage in additional discretionary rounds of revisions.

The ministry will not accept further reports submitted under the associated Project Information Form number. A non-compliant report may also trigger a review of the archaeologist’s licence.

Impact on your licence

Incomplete or non-compliant reports have a significant impact on an archaeologist’s licence record and may trigger a review of their licence.

The ministry takes a licensee’s record of compliance into account at the time of licensing decisions, including licence renewal, suspension and revocation.

When making licensing decisions, the ministry will consider a number of factors. The ministry will work with the licensee to address compliance concerns prior to making its decision.

Notifying proponents and approval authorities

The ministry is improving its communication with proponents and approval authorities by providing more updates on the status of report reviews.

The ministry emails proponents and approval authorities when a report has been deemed incomplete or non-compliant.

These email notifications will be sent at the same time that the ministry issues an incomplete or non-compliant report review letter to the licensee.

Redoing an assessment for a non-compliant report

Most reports received by the ministry are compliant. However, reports may be deemed non-compliant in a small number of cases. In these instances, approval authorities may not accept the archaeological assessment report as a condition of approval for a development plan application.

To gain approval, the proponent will need to have the archaeological assessment redone to ensure that concerns for archaeological resources on the subject property have been met. Depending on the non-compliant work, this may mean that one or more stages of archaeological assessment must be redone.

The proponent may choose to hire a new consultant archaeologist to complete the work. The new consultant archaeologist may contact the ministry to confirm the scope of work that is required for a stage of assessment that is to be redone. Requirements may vary based on the individual circumstances.

To assist proponents with potential development delays as a result of non-compliant reports, the ministry will expedite the review of any new reports filed for the project.

Ontario Public Register of Archaeological Reports

The Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries is required by Section 48 of the Ontario Heritage Act to maintain a register of archaeological reports and to make the register available to the public.

The Ontario Public Register of Archaeological Reports informs the public record of archaeology carried out in the province.

The ministry is improving the register by making it as comprehensive and up-to-date as possible. For the register to become a complete record of archaeology in the province, it must include reports that have not been reviewed as well as those that have not passed the ministry’s technical review.

The register will not indicate whether reports have received a technical review, nor the results of the review.