Timmins Local Citizens Committee

Minutes of April 8, 2009

April 8, 2009
LCC hours:  39 hours
Year to Date: 360
Total: 5605.4

Date:  April 8, 2009

Location: Ontario Government Complex, Fire Boardroom                                                                 
Present: Dave Stringer, Bill Russell, Jenny Millson, Kees Stryland, Lino Morandin, Ron Johnson, Rusty Fink, James McCarthy, Scott Tam

Regrets: Kees Pols, Melanie Johnson, Chris McKay, Robert Calhoun, Bob Bielek, Mark Joron, Gail Krawchuk, Allan Moyle

Absent: Audrey Cumming, George Sackenay, Dino Pellerin, Bill Hutchinson, Robert Vien

MNR: Glen McFarlane, Jim Duncan, Mac Kilgour

Guests: Don Bazeley, Tembec Inc.

Call to Order:
Bill Russell called the meeting to order at 6:50 p.m.

Summary of Action Items for This Meeting:
Action Item 04-09-01:Mac and Glen will look into the possibility of tracking LCC representative support hours on Planning Teams and discuss at a future meeting 
Action Item 04-09-02: The idea of supporting a self educating trail system should be a topic for a future meeting
Action item 04-09-03: Glen will ask someone from MNDM to provide a mining presentation to the LCC at a future meeting (Staking a claim to developing a mine)

Review and Approval of March 11, 2009 Minutes:

• Motion to accept- Jenny Millson
• Seconded by- Ron Johnson
• Carried

Review and Approval of tonight’s agenda:

• Motion to accept- Kees Stryland
• Seconded by- Dave Stringer
• Carried

Letters/Correspondence

• No correspondence to report

District Manager Update-Jim Duncan

• Timmins District has not received their budget for this year; expect the same as last year
• Suzanne Deforest has accepted an acting assignment at the Region; Marcel Desjardins will take the role of District F&W Technical Specialist while she is away

RMF LCC Survey Results-Mac Kilgour
Mac provided the LCC members with a synopsis of the RMF LCC survey:

• A self evaluation survey was distributed to the LCC members to complete regarding the understanding of the FMP process as it relates to the Romeo Malette Forest. Six people completed the survey. The survey is broken down under 5 different headings and people were asked to evaluate the LCC participation within that context. They were asked to provide a score between 1 and 5 for each survey question with a score of 1=strongly disagree and 5=strongly agree.
• Under the heading “Informed” the average score was 3.9; the people who responded to this survey felt that they were well informed and were provided with enough information to understand the planning process.
• Under the heading “Involved”, the score ranged from 2 to 5 with a mean of 4.4. In general, the LCC members felt that they were provided sufficient opportunity to be involved in the planning process and that their viewpoints were being seriously considered in the process.
• Under the heading “Influential” the score ranged from 1 to  5 with the mean being 3.8; most people did not see themselves as having the ability to personally influence decisions made in the FMP process, but the group recommendations did influence change.
• Under the heading “Representative” the score ranged from 2 to 5 with the mean being 3.9. Most people felt that the Timmins LCC reflected a broad sector of stakeholders; their views points were well represented.
• Under the heading “Functioning” the score ranged from 1 to 5 with the mean being 4.7. In general the Timmins LCC feels that they are able to participate in discussions and decisions and their views are considered and respected.

Prizes of “considerable value” were provided by Mac as a token of appreciation to each person that had completed the survey.
There was some discussion regarding the LCC participation at the FMP planning team table and that the time put in by the LCC representative on the Planning Team should be tracked and added to the LCC tracking of hours. This could be difficult to do as the LCC representatives at the planning team tables provide more time and support than the presence at planning team meetings.
Action Item 04-09-01:Mac and Glen will look into this possibility and provide a means of tracking LCC representative support hours on Planning Teams  to be discussed at a future meeting  

RMF Final Plan Presentation- LIno Morandin
Mac Kilgour introduced the final plan presentation and explained to the members what the planning team was expecting from the LCC table in preparation for the Final plan submission for District Manager and Regional Director approval of the plan. The planning team will present the Timmins LCC’s recommendations to the Regional Director at the presentation scheduled for April 14, 2009. The Regional Director values the LCC’s findings and recommendations in his consideration for approval of the plan.

Lino presented the Final Plan Review (see attached presentation) to the LCC members as follows:

• The planning team spent a lot of time on resolving issues with cottagers, residents and tourism operators.
• In all cases, there was resolution to the issues presented
• The tourist operator at Bromley lake has signed off on the Area of Concern prescription
• Key elements of the prescription include:
• Tembec is to complete their operations in 4-5 years
• Kukatush Primary road is to be physically decommissioned in key locations to prevent access
• MNR will provide signage restricting public access
• Winter operations only
• Existing trails will be maintained but not upgraded
• Dalton Road residents agreed to a prescription allowing for operations with seasonal and daily timing restrictions in proximity to their residents
• Kenogamisis and Kamiskotia cottagers and residents will be affected by operations in the second five year term of the FMP. Tembec will work with these parties to address their concerns throughout the next few years in anticipation of the term.
• Changes to the draft plan included:
• Changes due to stakeholder requests
• New MAFAS (moose aquatic feeding areas) were added
• Some AOCs for water quality were modified
• As a result Tembec added about 20 ha. of available harvest area (AHA) to re-coup some lost area to reserves
• The planning team re-assessed the comparison of Operations plan vs. Strategic LTMD and found very little changes.
• Of note, birch volume commitment volumes were not met; the 10 year average is lower by 9,000m3/year than the Operational LTMD; all other species by volume have been met or slightly over achieved.
•  Over the short term, projected wood flow from the forest will furnish:
• Cochrane Saw-mill (expected to re-start in May)
• Chapleau Saw-mill
• Work out wood trade arrangements with Domtar to maximize efficiencies with wood hauling wood other forests to saw-mills thereby reducing wood production costs.
• The plan should be approved by April 30, 2009
• The plan will be available for public inspection for 30 days hence
• If all is successful, operations may commence 15 days following public inspection, possibly June 15, 2009.

Following the presentation there were some questions and discussion:

• Q: Please explain the white pine growing stock target.
• A: the plan has a white pine restoration target of 20 ha./year. Tembec is committed to planting white pine to stocking levels great enough to restore 20 ha/year to white pine forest unit.

Discussion ensued regarding the LCC’s recommendation to the District Manager and Regional Director on their level of support they are willing to provide on the Final Plan. The following is their statement:

“The Timmins LCC has been presented with the Romeo Malette Forest Final Plan and we are in general agreement with the forest management plan as presented”

• Motion to accept- Jenny Millson
• Seconded by- Kees Stryland
• Carried-all

Bromley Lake Discussion Continued- Mac/Don
Mac provided the Timmins LCC members with a review of the remote tourism/access arrangement for the forest management activities scheduled for the next five year term to the west of and adjacent to Bromley lake and Nat River complex. Mac and Don provided the details that have been accepted by the remote tourism operator to allow for activities to take place. The following points were provided:

• Forest management activities are scheduled to take place on both the Gordon Cosen and Romeo Malette Forests situated adjacent to and west of the Bromley lake/Nat River complex.
• The remote tourism operator has agreed to the Area of Concern prescription which includes:
• Traditional access to Bromley lake and Nat River will not be restricted
• Tembec has agreed to complete all forest management activities on both the RMF and GCF in the first 4-5 years.
• Tembec has agreed to timing restriction for harvest operations between November and May of each year.
• Tembec will implement winter road technology in the construction of tertiary access
• Water crossings will be pulled and re-installed seasonally to create natural barriers to access; bridges may be required during spring tree plants
• MNR will install a restricted access sign at the beginning of the new road indicating that the use of the road is prohibited for people wanting to access Bromley lake complex; the wording of the sign is still not finalized.

There was a general discussion about the AOC prescription and the restriction for the public to use newly constructed roads. LCC members were ok with the prescription as they felt that traditional access will not be compromised.
Q- Will mining exploration be affected?
A- Mining exploration will be allowed to use the roads as long as the use is within their intention; road access will be limited due to the pulling of temporary water crossings and the use of winter road technology.

Romeo Malette Forest FMP Update- Jenny Millson
Jenny provided the members with a brief update; there was not much to add to Lino’s presentation of the RMF final plan presentation; she provided the following points:

• She attended two planning team meetings in Bob Bielek’s absence
• All the outstanding issues that stakeholders had with the draft plan have been addressed and accepted
• Public consultation process is complete
• We will proceed to RD presentation scheduled for April 14, 2009.

Cochrane Area Forest FMP Update- Kees Stryland
Kees provided the members with an update on the Cochrane Area Forest:

• Be sure to review the CAF Long Term Management Direction
• The First Information Centre has been scheduled for May 14, 2009 in Cochrane from 4pm to 8 pm; May 19, 2009 in Iroquois Falls; May 20, 2009 in Smooth Rock Falls and May 21, 2009 at the Ontario Government Complex, White Pine Boardroom in Timmins.
• The planning team is working with the tourism operators in the implementation of the Wilderness strategy
• CPAWS and Northwatch have responded to the LTMD; concerns with “holding the line report” on the caribou protection, more area is required; concerns with ecological targets; concerns with MROLs and harvest history on the units; Grindstone Road issue.

Mattagami Standing Advisory Committee- Bill Russell
Bill Russell provided the LCC members with an update on the Mattagami power station upgrades and retro-fits being done by Ontario Power Generation (OPG):

• The Sandy Falls generating station has been totally dismantled and removed.
• They are beginning new construction with a completion date of 2010
• Lower Sturgeon power house has been dismantled and removed.
• Like Sandy Falls a new power generating station will be constructed
• The Wawaitan Station will be the third generating station to be removed and replaced and is still actively producing power
• There has been young sturgeon caught in the area of the Tatachakipika River at the confluence of the Mattagami River. It is suspected that these are offspring from the sturgeon that were transferred into the upper stretch of the Mattagami River in 2003.
• There is a project this summer to capture the young sturgeon in that area of the river and have them sent away for DNA sampling to see if they were part of that offspring.
• The Mattagami Lake dam is still on for upgrade from a control structure to a power generating station.

Wood Commitment/Wood Flow Discussion- Jim Duncan
A question was asked at the March 11, 2009 meeting about the wood being licensed to Grant’s Mill in Timmins and can it be harvested and sent elsewhere? This discussion is in answer to that question and Action Item 03-09-02.

• Grant’s has a recognized volume commitment from the Romeo Malette forest for the Grant’s mill in Timmins
• Grant’s have a volume committed to their Englehart mill from the Nighthawk Forest.
• Tembec and Abitibi both have the SFLs for their respective forests.
• Tembec’s sale of the OSB ,mill to Grant included a commitment to make wood available to Grant’s Timmins mill
• Grant/Abitibi/Tembec work out business to business arrangements on making wood available to Grants.
• Over the short term wood from both RMF and NGH forests are being allowed to flow to Grants Englehart operation. This will not affect the RMF inventories for the Grant’s Timmins mill.
• Aspen not being used at Englehart is being shipped to Quebec markets; this does not hurt local inventories, in fact it benefits local industry and provides better utilization of wood on mixed-wood forest unit sites. It also benefits veneer operations as all parts of the tree are marketed.
• Over the long term, there may be possibilities of utilizing species for hog fuel and bio mass for future co-generating plants.

There was a general discussion regarding the bio mass/co-generation industry.

Round Table Issues/Discussion- All

• Interesting meeting
• Should we use Timmins LCC savings account to purchase plaques to be installed on a trail system to promote forestry education in the Timmins area? The idea is to set up a self guided tourism trail and has stop locations with interpretive information plaques; possibly look at the Hersey lake trail system as a prime location due to the high volume of traffic this system receives.
• Action Item 04-09-02:The idea of supporting a self educating trail system should be a topic for a future meeting
• The Cochrane Area Forest Stakeholder Agreement is almost complete; apparently the agreement is being reviewed by the lawyers.
• May 22, 2009 is Biodiversity day; BEAN (Biodiversity Environment and Awareness Network) are promoting the need to reduce invasive species and are canvassing the public to take part in working on reducing these species.
• The LCC would be interested in hearing about mining, the process of staking a claim to developing a mine.
• Action item 04-09-03: Glen will ask someone from MNDM to provide a mining presentation to the LCC at a future meeting (Staking a claim to developing a mine)

The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm
           

Next Meeting

Next meeting scheduled for May 13, 2009 at the Fire Boardroom of the Ontario Government Complex. Please contact Gail Krawchuk at gga@ntl.sympatico.ca if you cannot attend.

Minutes taken by:                                                    Minutes approved by:

……………………                                                    …………………………
Gail Krawchuk                                                          Bill Russell
LCC Secretary                                                          Chair