Timmins Coun. Kristin Murray has been appointed acting chair of the city’s Indigenous Advisory Committee.
The previous chair, Julie Cyr, resigned due to time commitment, said the city’s chief administrative officer (CAO) Dave Landers.
Today, the committee met for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Five committee members and city staff, including the CAO and city clerk Steph Palmateer, were on hand at the meeting.
During the meeting, Murray agreed that a chair should be chosen, saying she’s been receiving a lot of emails regarding the committee and it’d be great to have a chair who would be responsible for responding to the emails.
Committee member Robin Roy noted the chair should be of Indigenous background and questioned whether enough people were present at the meeting to make a decision.
After a brief discussion, Palmateer suggested appointing an acting chair to take the reins until the next committee meeting in January.
“I think that was the problem last time we had this discussion,” he said. “The group didn’t want to make a decision, I think, and we need to make a decision. And if the members aren’t happy about it, we can reconsider it later.”
Murray at first expressed hesitation, saying she doesn’t like to “take too much space.”
“It wouldn’t be inappropriate for a member of council to, at least, take an acting role until we get someone who wants or is willing to (do it),” Palmateer said. “Council doesn’t want to dominate committees they’re on but it would make sense to take that acting role.”
There are currently three vacant member seats on the committee. In addition to Cyr, two other members, Jennifer Wabano and Serena Besserer, have resigned from the committee because they both moved away from Timmins.
The Indigenous Advisory Committee is also looking for two youth representatives.
