New Westminster hasn't received a stop-work order for a water main replacement project in uptown New Westminster, but it temporarily halted work being done on a sensitive site.
The site in question is near an old burial spot once used by First Nations and other groups, which has been designated as part of a Heritage Conservation Area.
The City of New Westminster has applied for a site alteration permit to install water main connections in the Eighth Street and 10th Avenue area. The permit application has been referred to a number of groups, including several First Nations groups, the Union Solomen Masonic Lodge, the Chinese Benevolent Society, several churches and the B.C. Association for Community Living.
Hooman Hedayatna- ssab, a project engineer with the city, said the work involves replacement of a new water main and new connections to the high school site.
Jim Lowrie, the city's director of engineering, said crews had just started putting the connections across Eighth Street when Golder Associates suggested a site alteration permit should be sought. (Golder Associates is a consulting firm the school district hired to investigate the former cemetery at the high school site.)
Lowrie said Golder Associates had no issue with installation of the water main on the west side of Eighth Street, but recommended a permit for work related to connecting the water main to the connections on the east side of the site, which is closest to the high school.
"We have suspended work and applied for a heritage conservation permit," he said. "The heritage conservation area goes into the east lane of the road."
Lowrie said the city didn't believe any permits would be necessary because of the location of the property line and site of the work being undertaken. He said Golder Associates asked that the permit be sought as a precaution because the work is being done so close to the heritage conservation area.
Hedayatnassab said there hasn't been a stop work order imposed on the site, but the city stopped the work to "be on the safe side" and to have the site alternation permit in place before completing work on the section closest to the school. He said the water-main connection to the school hasn't been completed as the city is waiting to have the Heritage Conservation Act permit in place, which is expected by Nov. 10.
Bill Chu, chair of Canadians for Reconciliation Society, wrote to the province stating it's ironic that the city applied for a site alteration permit after starting excavation work at the site. He said witnesses reportedly caught the contractor excavating over this "most sensitive site" in late September.
Chu believes the fact that the site to the east of the road was re-designated as a cemetery should have been enough warning to stop the city from excavating in this area which was part of the same cemetery. He is opposed to continuing excavation at the site if significant numbers of remains are found.
If human remains are found during excavation, Chu wants their ethnicity to be identified so the corresponding ethnic group or association can be informed.
"We disagree historically significant artifacts will be made the properties of the city's museum and archives," he wrote in an email to the province. "We request such should first be offered to the corresponding ethnic group/association. If the latter does not have the capacity to keep them, they should have the right to repossess them at no cost at a later date."
Lowrie said the work is expected to be done at a time when school isn't in session.
Hedayatnassab said the site alteration permit is required to complete the necessary service connections from the new water main to the connections at the high school.
"We need to have the archeologist in the field once we do the excavation for completing the service connections," he said. "They need to be on site."
The New Westminster school district had to undertake a similar notification process in August in order to install plumbing in portables on the New Westminster Secondary School site. Although the project involved digging in an area behind the school library that isn't part of the designated cemetery at the high school site, the entire site is protected under a heritage conservation agreement, so groups whose ancestors or former members may have been buried on the site had to be notified.
The site housed an active burial ground from the 1860s to 1917, but the full extent of the cemetery was revealed in 2008 after the school district hired a consulting firm to investigate. The cemetery lines were drawn based on that research.
The Business Practices and Consumer Protection Authority - the government body that oversees cemeteries - designated a portion of the site as a cemetery, and the rest fell under the Heritage Conservation Act.
