Ancient remains found at Mill Bay Marina site

Ancient artifacts and human remains have been discovered at the Mill Bay Marina development.

Cowichan Valley Regional District planner Rob Conway confirmed that the remains of four people were discovered during excavation of the site’s felled cedar tree on Jan. 5.

“They were doing some work at the time, removing the stump of that tree and this is where the remains were found,” he said.

The remains of two adults and one infant were found intact, but a fourth set of remains were disturbed by the machinery.

Mill Bay Director Mike Walker was informed in a letter from the Malahat First Nation that a skull had been damaged during the work.

Conway said a meeting with the Malahat and Cowichan bands and the developer has been scheduled to discuss cultural sensitivities and what to do with remains and other findings on the site.

Calls to the Malahat band were not returned by press time.

The property’s developers, Conway said, had partnered with an archeologist since work began on the site as part of their alteration permit granted by the province.

This is standard procedure in areas where artifacts are likely to be found.

Once the human remains were discovered, though, a full-scale archeological dig was commissioned and paid for by the developers.

“They’ve been working under that permit and are in compliance with it,” Conway said.

Marina project spokesman Duane Shaw has confirmed work on the development is on hold while the archeological dig commissioned by the developers is being carried out with members of the Malahat and Cowichan bands.

Shaw would not speak to particulars of the find, citing the sensitivity of the situation. He said the handling of findings from the dig would be at the discretion of the First Nation bands and the archeologists.

“The protocol here is that whatever they find they record it and log it,” he said. “I think it really depends on what the Natives decide — if the things they find are significant to them, they’ll determine what they want done with those things.”

He said artifacts include First Nations items as well as non-Native relics from the turn of the century.

Once the archeological assessment is complete and the findings dealt with in the appropriate manner, he expects work will resume on the project.

The archeological dig is expected to continue for another week or two, he added.

The Mill Bay Marina project, owned by Cam Pringle, Andrew Purdey and Dave Slang, includes a new wharf to replace the one destroyed by a 2010 storm, as well as a 14-home condominium development at the end of Handy Road.
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