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Timmins is welcoming but there's still work to do: Study

'The experiences of First Nations people in our communities continues to be less than ideal even compared to how other minorities are treated," says Northern Policy Institute president
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Charles Cirtwill, president-CEO, Northern Policy Institute

While Timmins residents feel that the city is welcoming to newcomers, a new report shows there's an "observable gap" when it comes to First Nations people.

The Northern Policy Institute (NPI) has released Tangled Lines: Unraveling the Racism and Discrimination Divides in Northern Ontario. It's a series of five reports focusing on the main centres — Timmins, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Sudbury — that breaks down the results of a survey conducted in February.

The survey reports that "welcoming-ness" towards visible minorities is higher than towards Indigenous people. 

Eighty-six per cent of the respondents in the city said Timmins is welcoming to visible minorities, while that dropped to 66 per cent for Indigenous people.

Just over half of the respondents felt discrimination against visible minorities was no longer a problem, while 63 per cent believed it is still an issue for Indigenous people.

NPI president and CEO Charles Cirtwill said that the numbers show that people support the initiatives to combat discrimination.

“There seems to be a general consensus that people are committed to making the community more welcoming and they’re expecting their communities to become more welcoming in the next 10 years,” said Cirtwill. “The responses to the survey are enthusiastic and supportive of the idea that we solve the problems we have moving forward and make the expenditures necessary.” 

The results do show a difference in how some groups are treated, though.

“We still see a pretty significant, or at least observable gap between what’s going on for First Nations peoples and what’s going on for other visible minorities, and newcomers to Canada,” said Cirtwill. “The experiences of First Nations people in our communities continues to be less than ideal even compared to how other minorities are treated.”

The NPI survey is part of a more extensive program examining attitudes toward race, immigration and Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario.

The first survey was focused on immigration and newcomers to the region in 2021, and 2022’s focus was race and discrimination.

The results are encouraging for Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) community development consultant Nicola Alexander.

“When you’re looking at diversity, it involves a lot of community partners in a lot of other areas, and there are a lot of organizations that are invested in this work,” said Alexander. “I am hopeful that we’ll see even more traction in the next year .”

While TEDC wrapped up its diversity awareness program last year, its workplace inclusion charter is promoting diverse and discrimination-free workplaces in the city, and they offer a toolkit to companies looking to expand their awareness.

RELATED: New charter offers local businesses tools to diversify
SEE: Local woman jumps at chance to share her story for new project

Cirtwill said that the challenge to the NPI project is getting a diverse sample of people.

“We’re trying to engage with as many partner organizations as we can so that they can encourage the people they serve, their supporters and their volunteers to complete the survey because the more people who respond, the better the picture is," he said. 

In the recent survey, nearly half of the respondents were over 55 years old, 95 per cent were born in Canada, and 84 per cent were white.

Only 10 per cent of the respondents were Indigenous.

“We’d certainly love to see those numbers go higher,” said Cirtwill. “Hopefully we can see the number of respondents go up across the board.”

The survey asked respondents about their confidence in police, courts and media in the city as well, with 78 per cent having confidence in the police, 63 per cent in the judicial system and 54 per cent feeling confident in the media.

The report includes six recommendations to be done in tandem with concrete action. The suggestions are:

  • Aim for higher response from visible minorities and Indigenous peoples.
  • Continue measuring racism and discrimination in the community. 
  • Further investigate media confidence.
  • Continued public education in all spaces.
  • Ask who is not around the table and why.
  • Spotlight what works and implement where possible.

The next survey will be conducted in February 2024 and will cover topics related to immigration and newcomers to Canada.

Read the full report Tangled Lines: Unraveling the Racism and Discrimination Divides in Timmins here


Amanda Rabski-McColl, LJI Reporter

About the Author: Amanda Rabski-McColl, LJI Reporter

Amanda Rabski-McColl is a Diversity Reporter under the Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the Government of Canada
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