Methodology of Work

In its publication The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act Reference Guide on Physical and Cultural Heritage Resources, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency provides a step–by–step list of the procedures to be followed, in the chapter entitled "A Framework for Evaluating the Potential Environmental Effects of a Project on Cultural Heritage Resources." There are also detailed steps foreseen by each province, which must be observed in the case of provincially regulated projects. Compliance with these procedures is usually the responsibility of the archaeologist.

The Parks Canada Agency has offered the following supplemental advice. Documentary research, traditional knowledge, visual inspection, remote sensing, predictive modelling and test–pitting used in surveys by archaeologists must be seen as normally producing only a first–order approximation of the types, quantity and geographical distribution of archaeological sites. This provides resource managers with an overview of the cultural history, the density of sites and the types of locations in which more sites might be found.⁵²

Again, compliance with these procedures is usually the responsibility of the archaeologist.