The Indigenous Advisory Committee has taken “an important step forward”, according to Timmins Mayor Steve Black.
Tuesday, council approved the terms of reference for the committee.
“The committee’s goal is an advisory committee to council, so hopefully they will bring issues forward important to our Indigenous community members to make our community more inclusive and more accepting and more enjoyable from that perspective. I think a large portion of it will focus around anti-racism discussions and anti-racism strategies, but also signage in the community, community spaces and their uses, and cultural awareness and education in the community,” he said.
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.
“It’s very important to be moving ahead, it’s something that our urban Indigenous population has supported, I believe, and wanted to see move ahead. Now is it the exact terms of reference that everyone wanted to see? I’m not sure, we’ll get that feedback,” said Black.
Once the committee is formed, he said if the committee wants to alter the format or include additional people, they can bring it back as one of their first recommendations to council.
For example, at the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) training this week, Black said he’s heard suggestion to expand the community members or add Indigenous men to the requirements.
The application process is not open yet.
It will be run through the clerk’s office, however. Black said he will be trying to get back to people who had expressed an interest in applying as well.
In addition to the advisory committee, an Indigenous and municipal leader forum is also being established and political and regional issues. That group plans to meet quarterly.
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.
The flags will be raised for the first time tomorrow (June 21), National Indigenous Peoples Day, at 11 a.m.
All of the initiatives were started after the OHRC visited the city in March.
After the tour, Chief Commissioner Renu Mandhane told the Canadian Press that racism appears to be normalized in the city.
Mandhane and her group are back in town this week to offer free training sessions, and praised the city’s quick response to their findings.
“What’s really heartening when we come to smaller municipalities is there’s this real ability to do things quickly and proactively that actually positions them to be leaders on reconciliation. That’s what our hope is, is that Timmins actually becomes not maybe the lagger, but actually the leader on these initiatives and I think it’s really well positioned to do that,” she said.
