The Manitoba provincial government passed An Act Respecting Historic sites and Ethnological objects in 1946, but it only protected designated properties (Gonsalves et al. 1965). Ontario established legislation similar to that existing in British Columbia, to "sign" select sites in the Archaeological and Historic Sites Protection Act of 1953. Protection was restricted to well-known sites that had received "professional" investigation (Neal Ferris, personal com munication, 2007). Designation under this act protected sites from untrained individuals and tried to ensure that landowners did not inadvertently destroy sites through development.