An area of the West Victoria Street reconstruction zone is cordoned off on June 27, 2019.

(JENNA WHEELER / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS — Ancestral human remains discovered last week along a downtown Kamloops construction project came as no surprise to city officials who say it’s likely more will be found.

Last week, June 27, City officials announced construction crews had unearthed non-modern human remains while working along Victoria Street.

Since then, Crundwell says they have been working closely with Tk'emlups te Secwepemc and archeologists.

“I’m not going to say we expect to find more but is there a high likelihood? yes,”  says the city’s capital project manager Darren Crundwell.

Archeologists finished exhuming the remains on Friday, July 5, he says. The construction runs from the B.C. Lottery Corporation site to the Overlanders Bridge along Victoria Street.

Crundwell says they will not disclose what part of the construction zone the remains were found or what they were out of respect and security.

“You can drive out there and put two and two together but the reason we don’t disclose that is we don’t want to point people toward it,” he says, adding that in the past they have had issues with people disturbing the areas and taking items.

There has been 24-hour security on site since the remains were discovered, Crundwell says.

This area of the city had some of the oldest utilities, dating back to the 1900s, which is why finding remains wasn't totally unexpected.

“Since planning this project we have everything in place, we thought there was a very high likelihood that we would find artifacts and or remains that are archeological and cultural,” he says.

Whenever there is active excavation going on, there is an archeologist on site in case construction workers find remains.

Earlier this week, Tk’emlups te Secwepemc held a private ceremony to honour the remains that were found and invited some city officials to join.

“It was a very nice ceremony to be a part of that,” he says.

”This has only further enhanced the relationship that we are developing with Tk’emlups and its very good, probably better than its ever been.”

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