Following meetings with the Ministry of Culture in March of 2009, the OAS agreed to work with the Ministry and the APA to facilitate member consultation on the Ministry’s draft standards and guidelines for consultant archaeologists (S&G). This would be facilitated by the Board’s Director of Advocacy.
We want to formally thank the Ministry for extending this offer to the OAS. We appreciate that, in some ways, this was a more difficult step to take than to facilitate consultation directly by the Ministry. We believe that the working relationship between the Ministry and the OAS this project has facilitated is a positive measure, and the OAS remains committed to building on this first effort. Moreover, this process has been open to facilitating a broad degree of consultation and conversation among all the various parts of the archaeological community on the issues. As a result of this consultation, we feel certain that the final document the Ministry brings forward will improve on the first iteration generated in 2004. We also have the confidence that, once past a transition period, these standards of practice will be supported and practiced by the vast majority of the archaeological community. This will, in turn, help the community further mature and professionalise its practice, allowing us to work with the Ministry to effectively tackle the many other issues facing the management of Ontario’s archaeological heritage that have had to wait for this initiative to be completed.
| INTRODUCTION | OAS CONSULTATION EFFORTS | OVERVIEW OF FEEDBACK |
| KEY MESSAGES | THEMES |