Archaeological resource management in Toronto: Planning, preservation, and interpretation

Abstract

The legislative provisions for archaeology related to public and private development in Ontario are among the most far-reaching in North America. Decisions related to the land-use process, which impacts most archaeological sites, are most often made at the municipal level, where the role of development approval resides. Many of the municipalities experiencing the greatest development pressures have undertaken detailed archaeological management plans to inform those planning decisions. These plans consider the known and potential archaeological resource base and define the means by which sites will be identified during land-use development and either protected or subjected to mitigative excavation. In this paper, we focus on the archaeological management plan employed by the City of Toronto and on the roles of descendant communities and other local interest groups in collaborative decision making in the archaeological planning context. We also note the importance heritage planners have placed on the public interpretation and commemoration of archaeological sites.