A Kamloops landowner has learned an expensive lesson that most British Columbians don’t even know exists: if you dig on your own property and uncover Indigenous remains, you could be on the hook for six-figure costs, with no help from the government and no clear way out.

Their experience should serve as a warning to anyone who assumes private property still means what it used to in the province.

In the Kamloops case, in just seven months, the discovery has triggered more than $100,000 in legal and archeological costs on an empty parcel of land assessed at $440,000. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc have demanded more than $80,000 in additional fees, including 24-hour security provided by them at roughly double the normal rate.

At the same time, the property has been declared an untouchable “sacred site” locked behind layers of provincial red tape and bureaucratic delay—all while duelling archeological reports suggest the two skulls in question may not have originated on the property at all, but were dumped there many years ago as imported fill under a previous owner.

It is, for many, a nightmare scenario. Start a small project in your backyard, only to hit an ancient object or bone that predates you by hundreds of years but nonetheless puts you on the hook legally for a mountain of costs, without help from any level of government.

“It shows there’s a lot of vulnerability in private property ownership at the moment, with really a limited access at this point to full disclosure and information about what’s happening,” said Independent Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Elenore Sturko, who has been trying to help the property owner.

“Where is the balance?”

The problem isn’t about treating Indigenous remains with care, it’s about the province’s legal framework that effectively transfers the full financial burden of that care onto a private citizen, with no transparency, no appeals and no compensation.

The property owner found two skulls on June 13 while landscaping a relatively small empty lot to act as a community garden for seniors at a........

© BIV