Timmins, Ontario

Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 (2021). The city's economy is based on natural resource extraction, and is supported by industries related to lumbering, and to the mining of gold, zinc, copper, nickel and silver. Timmins serves as a regional service and distribution centre. The city has a large Francophone community, with more than 50% bilingual in French and English.

History

Research performed by archaeologists indicate that human settlement in the area is at least 6,000 years old; it's believed the oldest traces found are from a nomadic people of the Shield Archaic culture.

Up until contact with settlers, the land belonged to the Mattagami First Nation peoples. Treaty Number Nine of 1906 pushed this tribe to the north side of the Mattagami Lake, the site of a Hudson's Bay trading post first established in 1794. In the 1950s, the reserve was relocated to the south side of the lake, to its present-day location.

Gold Mines

Gold discoveries in the Porcupine Camp during the early years of the 20th Century attracted investors to the area.

According to local folklore, on June 9, 1909, Harry Preston slipped on a rocky knoll and the heels of his boots stripped the moss to reveal a large vein of gold, which later became the Dome Mine. Another theory on how gold was discovered in the Timmins region is that an Indigenous man led Harry Preston to the location where he knew gold would be found. These, however, are only folklore commonly known by citizens of Timmins. A historically accurate account of the very first gold discovery in the area remains unknown.

On October 9, 1909, Benny Hollinger discovered the gold-bearing quartz dike that later became known as the Hollinger Mines. Brothers Noah Timmins and Henry Timmins bought Benny Hollinger's share from him, thus partnering with Hollinger's employers, the McMartin brothers.

On the same day as the Hollinger discovery, Sandy McIntyre discovered the McIntyre Mine near Pearl Lake, four miles away. These mines are known as the "Big Three".

Hollinger Mines was incorporated in 1910 with five equal partners consisting of former Mattawa, Ontario, shopkeeper brothers, Noah and Henry Timmins; Duncan and John McMartin, also brothers; and Mattawa attorney David Dunlap (1863–1924).

In November 1912, 1,200 members of the Western Federation of Miners Local 145 held a strike at all three mines in response to a proposal to lower their wages. Mine operators hired gun thugs, who fired on the picket line and were ordered out by the provincial government. After months without work, many men chose to leave the settlement; only 500 miners returned to work in July 1913. The strike won the men a nine-hour workday and a pay increase.

The Great Depression did not adversely affect the economy of the area, and jobs were available in mining and lumber.

The gold mines declined in the 1950s.

Settlement

The area became home to dozens of prospectors during the "Porcupine Gold Rush", who explored the areas around Porcupine Lake and the Frederick House River. Rich ore deposits in the Canadian Shield led to Timmins being founded as a company town to house Hollinger employees. In 1912, mine manager Alphonse "Al" Paré named the mining settlement for his uncle, Noah Timmins, who was President of Hollinger Mines. Most settlers grouped around Porcupine Lake and the Dome, one mile from the lake. Four miles down the road, around the McIntyre Mine, the hamlet of Schumacher was established.

The rail system that began to operate around Timmins in 1911 accelerated the growth of the camp. That same year, two days after the first train arrived in the Porcupine, the entire camp was destroyed in the fire of 1911. The fire had destroyed 494,000 acres (199,915 hectares) of forest, and killed approximately 70 people, although it is estimated that the fire claimed the lives of 200 people. The deceased were buried along Porcupine Lake, at Dead Man's Point, now known as Tisdale Cemetery. The camp began to be rebuilt within a few days.

In 1917, a dam was built at Kenogamissi Falls, downriver from Mattagami Lake, to provide power for the Timmins-Porcupine mining camp; Mattagami Lake was consequently flooded.

In 1973, 35 townships covering 1,260 square mile, including Porcupine, South Porcupine, Schumacher, and Timmins were organized into the City of Timmins.

In the 1990s, the City of Timmins became a regional service and distribution centre for Northeastern Ontario.

Climate

Timmins is near the northern periphery of the hemiboreal humid continental climate ( Dfb). Timmins has very cold winters, being in Northern Ontario, but temperatures in late summer and autumn tend to be among the coldest for any major city in any Canadian province. During the spring and summer, temperatures can rise considerably. The highest temperature ever recorded in Timmins was on 12 July 1936. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 1 February 1962.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Timmins had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Language

In Timmins, according to the 2016 census, 63.7% of the population reported English as their first language ( Anglophone), 35.6% reported French (Francophone) as their first language, and 0.12% reported a non-official language, neither English nor French, as their first language (Allophone). 50.8% of the population is bilingual in English and French.

Arts and culture

Tourism

Some of the main tourist attractions within the city include: The Timmins Museum and National Exhibition Centre, Cedar Meadows Wilderness Tours, Mount Jamieson Resort (formerly known as Kamiskotia Snow Resort), Porcupine Ski Runners Cross-Country Trails and Chalet, Hollinger Golf Club, Spruce Needles Golf Club, the Sandy Falls Golf Club, the McIntyre Community Building and the Timmins Snowmobile Club. Snowmobiling impacts the Timmins economy, as tourists travel from all over North America to explore area trails.

Hollinger Park is one of the city's main recreational spaces. The park is divided in two sections, the north side being the public park area, with the south side having a regulation sized baseball diamond and two soccer fields for more organized outdoor recreational endeavours. The baseball park has been home to the Timmins Men's Baseball League since 1985. Former Timmins resident Shania Twain played a concert at Hollinger Park on July 1, 1999. An estimated 22,000 people attended the outdoor concert.

The Pioneer Museum is located northeast of the city centre in Connaught, a community of 400 people. Nearby communities include Barbers Bay, Dugwal, Finn Road, Hoyle, Ice Chest Lake, McIntosh Springs and Nighthawk. Local history in the area dates back over 300 years.

La Galeruche Art Gallery, located at 32 Mountjoy Street North (Centre Culturel La Ronde), provides local francophone artists with a venue to exhibit and sell their work. The building has since been torn down, but plans to rebuild are underway, as of March 2022.

The Porcupine Miner's Memorial tribute is a statue of the miner, head frame and tablets bearing the names of 594 miners killed in mining accidents were unveiled in 2008. The following year, the statues of a mother and two children were unveiled to commemorate those families left behind.

The Timmins Public Library was constructed in 2005 with locally manufactured products, using wood as the main structural material, making efficient use of natural resources while reducing construction waste. The eco-friendly design was recognized by the Green Building Initiative, and the building achieved a 3 Green Globes rating for its efficient use of resources and sustainable development.

Government

The city's current mayor is Kristin Murray,"Timmins, Ont., council appoints Kristin Murray as new mayor"
CBC Northern Ontario, August 10, 2022. who was appointed by Timmins City Council in August 2022 to serve out the remaining term of George Pirie following his election to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2022 Ontario general election. Murray, of Jamaican and Cree descent, is the first person of colour to serve as mayor of the city.

Pirie was first elected in the 2018 Cochrane District municipal elections, succeeding Steve Black. Due to the proximity of the 2022 Cochrane District municipal elections in October, the city could not schedule a by-election under provincial law, and was required to make some form of temporary appointment. Murray did not, however, run for mayor in the general election, and instead registered to run for her prior council seat in Ward 5; she will be succeeded as mayor by Michelle Boileau when the new council is sworn in.

Eight councillors serve with the mayor to complete the municipal government. Those eight councillors are elected to one of five areas of the city through a ward electoral system; rural parts of the city elect one councillor each, while the urban core of the city elects four at-large councillors. Councillors are elected to a four-year term.

Timmins City Council

*Rock Whissell, Ward 1 Councillor
*Mickey Auger, Ward 2 Councillor
*Joe Campbell, Ward 3 Councillor
*John P. Curley, Ward 4 Councillor
*Michelle Boileau, Ward 5 Councillor
*Andrew Fisher, Ward 5 Councillor
*Kristin Murray, Ward 5 Councillor
*Cory Robin, Ward 5 Councillor

Provincial

The city was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by MPP Gilles Bisson from 1990 until 2022, when he was defeated by Pirie.

Federal

The Member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay is currently Charlie Angus.

Education

Postsecondary education

The two main postsecondary institutions in Timmins is Northern College, a College of Applied Arts and Technology and Collège Boréal, which also has a sister campus of Université de Hearst. Algoma University also offers degrees in Social Work and Community Development on the Northern College Campus in South Porcupine.

School boards

Four school boards serve the City of Timmins:
* District School Board Ontario North East
* Northeastern Catholic District School Board
* Conseil scolaire catholique de district des Grandes-Rivières
* Conseil scolaire de district du Nord-Est de l'Ontario

High schools

* O'Gorman High School
* École Publique Renaissance
* École secondaire catholique Thériault
* Timmins High and Vocational School
* Roland Michener Secondary School

Media

In 1952, broadcast pioneer J. Conrad Lavigne launched CFCL, the first French-language radio station in Ontario. Prior to the introduction of cable television to the Timmins area in the latter part of the 1970s, the city's available TV channels consisted of English-language channel 3 broadcast out of Sudbury and CFCL's channel 6 (in English) and channel 9 (in French) broadcast from CFCL's studio located at the north end of Pine Street.

The '' Timmins Daily Press'' is the main English publication, publishing six issues per week. Other French-language media include newspapers ''Le Voyageur'' and ''Le Journal L'Express de Timmins''.

Healthcare

Timmins and District Hospital (TADH) is an accredited referral and teaching hospital that serves Timmins, Cochrane District, Temiskaming, Sudbury and Algoma Districts. Weeneebayko Area Health Authority also use TADH to transfer patients requiring more advanced care not available in their community health care centres.

The 134-bed hospital was formed in 1988 from the merger of St. Mary's General Hospital and Porcupine General Hospital, now Spruce Hill Lodge, a retirement home. The two former hospitals were replaced in 1996 and 1993, respectively, when the current site was built.

Sports

The Timmins Rock of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League represent Timmins in hockey. They are the city's junior A team. And their affiliate, Timmins Majors, of the Great North Midget League, are the Midget AAA team. They both play at the McIntyre Arena.

Transportation

Timmins Victor M. Power Airport is the main regional airport for the Timmins area. Regional ground transportation is provided by Ontario Northland Motor Coach Services operating out of the Timmins Transit Terminal.
The nearest communities with train service are more than 100 kilometres away. They include Foleyet to the west and Gogama to the south, which are served by '' The Canadian'', Via Rail's transcontinental passenger rail service. To the north of Timmins, Cochrane is the southern terminus of the Ontario Northland Railway's '' Polar Bear Express''. Matheson and Porquis Junction were formerly the closest stations to the city. Local transit is provided by Timmins Transit.

Notable people

* Alfred Aho, computer scientist, member of US National Academies, professor at Columbia University, Turing Award winner
* Charlie Angus, musician and songwriter for the band Grievous Angels, currently serving as the New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for Timmins—James Bay since 2004.
* Paul Bellini, comedy writer and television actor
* Gilles Bisson, Ontario New Democratic Party Member of Provincial Parliament since 1990 for the provincial riding of Timmins.
* Michael Boisvert, actor
* Natalie Brown, actress
* Dave Carroll and Don Carroll, country/pop/folk band Sons of Maxwell
* Carlo Cattarello, Order of Canada & Queen's Jubilee Medal recipient
*Lina Chartrand, writer
* Jamie M. Dagg, film director
* Derek Edwards, comedian
* John Labow, actor and television producer
* Maurice LaMarche, comedian and voice actor
* J. Conrad Lavigne, broadcasting pioneer
* Lights (born Valerie Poxleitner), vocalist, singer-songwriter
* Cecil Linder, actor
* Frank Mahovlich, NHL Hall of Fame player and Canadian Senator
* Peter Mahovlich, NHL player
* Bruce McCaffrey, Progressive Conservative MPP
* Derek McGrath actor
* Gord Miller, former Environment Commissioner of Ontario
* Alan Pope, former Progressive Conservative MPP
* Jim Prentice, former Premier of Alberta, former Member of Parliament from Calgary and federal cabinet minister
* Myron Scholes, Nobel Prize winning economist
* Philippe Tatartcheff, Swiss-born poet and songwriter notable for writing songs in French with Anna and Kate McGarrigle
* Gordon Thiessen, governor of the Bank of Canada from 1994 to 2001
* Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, newspaper magnate, started his empire in the 1930s with the '' Timmins Daily Press''
* Lola Lemire Tostevin, novelist and poet
* Shania Twain, musician
* Bruce Watson, guitarist with Scottish rock band Big Country

''See also'': List of mayors of Timmins.

Notable athletes

* Pete Babando, National Hockey League (NHL) hockey player
* Bill Barilko, NHL hockey player and subject of the 1993 Tragically Hip song "Fifty Mission Cap"
* Aldege "Baz" Bastien, NHL goaltender
* Sharon Bruneau, female bodybuilder, fitness competitor, actress and stuntwoman
* Les Costello, NHL hockey player with the Toronto Maple Leafs 1947–49. Later became a Roman Catholic priest in Timmins while continuing to play hockey for the " Flying Fathers"
* Réal Chevrefils, NHL hockey player with the Boston Bruins 1951–59.
* Murray Costello, Hockey Hall of Famer, president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association
* Larry Courville, NHL hockey player
* Shean Donovan, NHL hockey player
* Paul Harrison, NHL hockey player
* Alex Henry, NHL hockey player
* Art Hodgins, Ice hockey player, inducted in the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame
* Mark Katic, NHL hockey player
* Kathy Kreiner, Gold medallist, giant slalom, XIIth Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck, Austria, 13 February 1976
* Laurie Kreiner, Alpine skiing, XI Olympic Winter Games, XIIth Olympic Winter Games
* Jason Gervais, Athletics discus, Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics
* Denis Lapalme, amputee athlete and Paralympic medalist
* Rick Lessard, NHL hockey player
* T. J. Luxmore, NHL Referee
* Frank Mahovlich, NHL hockey player, Canadian Senator
* Pete Mahovlich, NHL hockey player
* Jim Mair, NHL hockey player
* Hector Marini, NHL hockey player
* Bob McCord, NHL hockey player
* Gus Mortson, NHL hockey player
* Bob Nevin, NHL hockey player
* Dave Poulin, NHL hockey player
* Dean Prentice, NHL hockey player
* Eric "Doc" Prentice, NHL hockey player
* Dale Rolfe, NHL hockey player
* Steve Shields, NHL goaltender
* Allan Stanley, NHL hockey player
* Steve Sullivan, NHL hockey player
* Walter Tkaczuk, NHL hockey player
* Eric Vail, NHL hockey player, 1975 Calder Trophy winner

See also

*Neighbourhoods in Timmins
* Kidd Mine
*List of francophone communities in Ontario

References

External links

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{{Authority control

Cities in Ontario
Mining communities in Ontario
Single-tier municipalities in Ontario