A new committee is working to preserve Timmins' rich history by taking steps to protect heritage buildings and sites.
This week, council heard from Municipal Heritage Committee chair Nicola Alexander.
The new group was created in March and is a sub-commitee of the Museum Advisory Committee. Its goal is to promote and raise awareness about municipal heritage, and act in an advisory and consultative role.
Alexander told council a Municipal Heritage Register would protect designated sites from demolition or changes to significant heritage features of buildings.
“By saying a site’s designated, you’re not freezing it in time or saying you can’t develop, but you’re saying there’s certain aspects of it that need to be taken into consideration,” she said.
The committee, she said, can only help identify what sites should be designated. Adding properties to a register is a municipal process that she said is tied into bylaws.
She said Timmins doesn't have to lead the way for the initiative.
“Of the five big municipalities here in the north, Timmins is the only municipality that hasn’t established a list yet. I think there is precedent, there is certainly other municipalities that have tackled the same initiatives that we are facing,” she said.
A Municipal Inventory of Historical Sites in Timmins-Porcupine was done back in 1979, and in 2004 a Municipal Inventory of Heritage Conservation Resources was completed.
Potential heritage sites noted in the 2004 inventory include: the Airport Hotel, McIntyre Headframe, McIntyre Lodge, the Hollinger Headframe and the related buildings, St. Anthony's, St. Alphonsus, the old train station, Hollinger management homes, the Mascioli residence, Dalton Home, St. Antoine, old public library, CFCL television station, and log homes on Croatia and Wilson.
The Dome mine manager's house was also on the list, but was demolished in 2018.
Alexander said the owner of the log home on Wilson has submitted a request to the city clerk to register the home. The ask was referred to the municipal heritage committee, who found it to be of heritage value.
The committee recommended that the house be on the municipal heritage register as a designated property or listed as a site of heritage or cultural interest.
Conserving the McIntyre headframe is also on the group's radar.
“It represents an enormous challenge, but it’s also an opportunity to make a significant contribution, not only to the conservation of a local cultural heritage asset, but arguably one which forms part of Ontario’s mining heritage,” she said.
They are recommending that a heritage assessment is done that also includes Pearl Lake, the McIntyre Community Centre, McIntyre Lodge and Schumacher.
Timmins Mayor George Pirie firmly supports the committee's initiative.
“I’m firmly behind any tool that we can possibly have in our tool chest to save buildings like the Timmins Daily Press building or the old Bupont’s building or the mine manager’s house. I want to have some of those tools, I want to have, if at all possible, a say,” said Mayor George Pirie.
He said the city has "to do a better job of not only acknowledging our past, but teaching it and educating ourselves."
Including privately-owned and city-owned sites worries Coun. Joe Campbell, who noted it restricts what the owner can do with a building.
“Obviously if you start with properties owned by the city that cuts through some of those concerns," said Alexander.
"In terms of private property, the Heritage Act is being reviewed at the moment in terms of the processes that are followed. I believe owners do have a right to appeal against decisions of the municipality. What the Heritage Act has done up to now is a lot of the conservation responsibility rests with the municipality in which it’s located and one of the advantages of that is the municipality know their properties and they know what’s important."
