Proposed updates to B.C. heritage laws could bring ‘legal troubles,’ critics warn

Nearly two decades ago, a cave regarded as a sacred site by the Songhees Nation was destroyed to make way for the Bear Mountain resort development near Victoria.

There were no tangible Indigenous artifacts at the site, in an area called Spaet by the Songhees, so the provincial archeologists involved said there was no obligation to preserve it under B.C.’s existing Heritage Conservation Act of 1996.