Members of the Musqueam First Nation are celebrating a ruling from the province on the land known as the Marpole Midden along Southwest Marine Drive in Vancouver.

Band councillor Wade Grant says a ruling on two permits has come down, one stating no further alteration of the land can occur, the other, allowing for more time to re-inter ancient remains that have been uncovered.
 
"From the very beginning, this is what our community members have been asking. The site is a significant heritage site for us, and not only for us, we believe for everybody in this province"
 
He says the developer behind the condo project can appeal the ruling and expects that will happen.

A Decision by the province to side with the First Nations groups in the dispute over the Marpole Midden has outraged the developer. 

Century Group spokesperson Bob Ransford says the BC Government has essentially seized the land and not fairly compensated the development group. 

"In effect they have expropriated the property without compensation and bascially said you can't do anything with that property and we are not doing anything to compensate you for that and I think every owner of private property in BC should be very concerned about that."

Asked if they will appeal the ruing, Ransford says "I think we have to look at all of our options I mean this has put us in an unconscionable position in terms of a piece of land that is worth millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on archaeological work and hundreds of thousand more on development planning and we have no way of extracting that value out of property that is privately owned."

Ransford says the decision by the province has put his group in an unconscionable position. 

As for where they go next. 

"Well you know the Musqueam have indicated that they are prepared to purchase the property from us and we are waiting to see an offer that represents the value of that property they have talked about numbers..uh..you know numbers that don't make any sense at all they have never presented anything in the form of a bona fide offer."