The city’s Indigenous Advisory Committee is taking shape.
The terms of reference for the committee will be up for discussion at the June 19 council meeting.
In March, council approved the creation of the committee, along with hosting training for cultural sensitivity and awareness as well as for truth and reconciliation, creating a leadership forum with municipal and Indigenous leaders to meet regularly, and to permanently raise three flags at city hall. The three flags are the Mattagami First Nation, which is the traditional territory of the city, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which is the greater treaty land, and the Metis Nation of Ontario.
According to a council report, a meeting with local and regional Indigenous leadership was held April 25.
That session addressed the advisory committee and leader forum, truth and reconciliation and cultural competency, and National Indigenous Peoples Day.
“The focus of this committee will be on living and doing business in Timmins,” reads the report. “It will include elder and youth membership as recommended.”
The terms of reference states that the committee would meet quarterly and include two local elders, two Indigenous women and two Indigenous youth, along with two representatives from the business and service industries, the CAO, clerk, and two members from the community. One member of council will be appointed, with the mayor serving as an ex-officio member.
The focus for the Indigenous and municipal leader forum “will be more political and larger regional issues.” That group plans to meet quarterly as well.
The terms of reference are on the agenda at the same time the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) returns to town.
Ontario Human Rights Chief Commissioner Renu Mandhane first visited Timmins in March.
In an interview after the trip, however, the Canadian Press reported that she said racism appears to be normalized in the city and that her group got “the sense that there is a pervasive level of racism that Indigenous people experience in Timmins.”
Next week, Mandhane will be meeting with civic and Indigenous leaders to talk about how to advance reconciliation and better protect the human rights of Indigenous peoples living in or accessing services in Timmins.
June 19, the OHRC is partnering with the city for Taking it Local: An Update on Human Rights.
For the final day of sessions June 20, the OHRC is hosting free education sessions about how to accommodate Indigenous spiritual practices.
A four-day celebration is also being held in the city next week leading up to National Indigenous Peoples Day. That will cap off June 21, when the new flags will also be raised at city hall.
Timmins council meets at 6 p.m. June 19 at city hall.
You can read the full report on the terms of reference here.
