Timmins Local Citizens Committee

Minutes of September 29, 2010

September 29, 2010

LCC hours: 48 hours

Year to Date: 120

Total: 5959.4

Date: September 29, 2010

Location: Ontario Government Complex, Fire Boardroom

Present: Robert Calhoun, Ron Johnson, Rusty Fink, Stefanie Thibeault, Bill Russell, Andy Chartrand, Kees Stryland, Mark Joron, Lino Morandin, Scott Tam, Mark Lapalme, Kees Pols

Regrets: Dave Stringer, Melanie Johnson, Gilbert Fortin, Jenny Millson, Allan Moyle, Barry Edwards, James Naveau, Bob Bielek, Gail Krawchuk

Absent: George Sackenay, Rodney Wincikaby

MNR: Glen McFarlane, Nikki Wood

Guests: Dave Bucar, Goldcorp; Dave Yashishyn, Xstrata Copper Canada

Call to Order:

Bill Russell called the meeting to order at 6:45 p.m.

Summary of Action Items for This Meeting:

Action Item 09-10-01: MNR will provide a presentation of the program and their findings regarding Broad Scale Fish Monitoring at a future LCC meeting.

Action Item 09-10-02: The 2010 Mattagami River sturgeon netting project was filmed and will be provided to the LCC at a later date.

Review and Approval of June 23, 2010 Minutes:

· Motion to accept- Robert Calhoun

· Seconded by Andy Chartrand

· All in favour

Review and Approval of May 26, 2010 Minutes:

• Motion to accept- Robert Calhoun
• Seconded by Kees Stryland
• All in favour

Review and Approval of tonight’s agenda:

§ Andy asked for some time in the agenda to include a Timmins Fur Council project update

• Motion to accept- Andy Chartrand
• Seconded by- Mark Joron
• Carried

Letters/Correspondence

• Bill Russell noted that the Independent Forest Audit team for the Abitibi Forest had sent out a questionnaire for the LCC members to complete and return; Marc Lapalme indicated that he had presented the questionnaire to his Kapuskasing and Timmins Snowmobile Club members to fill out.
• The Timmins LCC funds that have been in a savings account at the Credit Union for several years were divided up and provided to the three most interesting projects presented to the LCC last spring by the Timmins LCC members. Approximately $1900.00 was divided three ways to support three projects, namely
• Pack it in Pack it out signs
• Sturgeon study on the Mattagami River
• Forest management signs located on MRCA trails
• Bill Russell presented cheques to Andy Chartrand for the Sturgeon study and Kees Pols for the forest management signs projects.

District Manager Update- Glen McFarlane for Randy Pickering

Glen provided the Timmins LCC members with the following update:

• Timmins District office is now back to their full compliment of staffing
• Summer projects such as the Stewardship Ranger program have winded down; they had a very successful summer and were involved with a number of fields projects with other agencies
• The Broad Scale fish monitoring project has just completed. A number of local lakes in FMZ 8 that represent average lake sizes in the area were sampled for fish populations. This is part of the ongoing provincial fishery monitoring program;

Action Item 09-10-01: MNR will provide a presentation of the program and their findings regarding Broad Scale Fish Monitoring at a future LCC meeting.

GoldCorp Tailings Rehabilitation Update- Dave Bucar

Dave Bucar provided the Timmins LCC members with a presentation on Coldcorp’s progress to date on a number of tailings rehabilitation projects completed in the Timmins area and the Three Nation lake mining project.

• Gold Corp’s mission is to “restore the past, grow the present and invest in the future”
• They want to promote an eco friendly company with regard to minimizing their footprint ecologically
• There are three projects that will be highlighted in this presentation

Coniaurum Tailings

• These tailings are located north east of the old McIntyre head frame
• The tailings were victim to major washouts and breaches; Some tailings migrated into the Porcupine River
• 2005-08 major cleanup and restoration project under taken by the Company; the tailings facility was re-sloped, drainage ditches lined with “rip rap” were constructed to manage surface water and a sludge by-product from Abitibi was spread across the site to initiate and enhance grass and shrub growth.
• This has been a huge success as the area is rehabilitating quite nicely
• Bee hives have been set up on the property and the Company is getting honey crops from the rehabbed site.

Hollinger Tailings

• These tailings are located on Hwy #655 just east of Gillies Lake
• A breach of the tailings facility in the early 60’s had tailings migrate from the dam west towards Town Creek.
• As part of the rehabilitation project these tailings were dredged out and re-located back to its former site
• A new drainage channel was constructed to connect Gillies pond to Town Creek
• The water at Gillies pond receives a lime treatment before it can enter town creek
• The plan is to eventually fill this pond from tailings in the vicinity
• The former McIntyre concentrate dump is acid generating and will require to be covered to limit acid generation.
• To date, a number of areas have been cleaned of tailings and re-seeded, some of MRCA trails were re-located to facilitate the cleanup of the area.
• The famous snow sledding hill adjacent to #655 and Ross Avenue exit has been re-vitalised for public use.
• The Company are very pleased with their results to date; more work is required in 2011.

Three Nation Lake Project

• In 2005 the Company embarked on expanding open pit operations north of Three Nation Lake.
• This project required the movement and reconstruction of a portion of Three Nation Lake, re-direction of the Hwy 101 and construction of a haul toad to connect their open pit to their mill.
• As part of DFO requirements the Company had to replace the lake basin with “like for like” habitat; they engineered and built a new lake basin complete with spawning area and connected the lake to a new Three Nation creek channel.
• The lake basin has now been re-established and is functional. The gate to Three Nation Lake area has now been taken down and is open to public access once again.

Following Dave’s presentation, there were a number of questions from the LCC members as follows:

• Q-What is the difference between newly constructed tailings ponds vs. old facilities?
• A-Mines used to locate low areas such as lakes and ponds to house their tailings; nowadays, tailing facilities are located and engineered to ensure more stability and to better manage water
• Q-Are the private property owners pleased with the tailings rehab work completed at the Hollinger facility.
• A-Most land owners were very happy with the cleanup efforts.
• Q-How do you deal with the migration of metals in a tailings facility
• A-The metals generally move down into the ground; the ground water is monitored by wells.

A comment from the Timmins Snowmobile Club complimented the Company on the work that they do for the community and their attempts to work with all groups to ensure trails for snowmobiling and cross country ski trails etc. are preserved during their rehab efforts.

The LCC Chair thanked Dave for his presentation and wished him the best in the Company’s future efforts.

Timmins Fur Council Project Update-Andy Chartrand

Andy provided the LCC members with an update of three projects that they had undertaken in 2010. They are as follows:

Sturgeon Re-introduction and Follow up

• Timmins Fur Council, Club Navigateur, MNR, OPG partnered a project in 2002 to introduce 50 sturgeon captured from Little Long Dam and transferred to Mattagami River public boat launch in Timmins.
• Fish were fitted with radio transmitters and released; follow up monitoring indicated that a few fish travelled over Sandy Falls dam while others dispersed towards Tatachikapika River.
• In 2006 some young sturgeon were caught in MNR nets near Tatachikapika River.
• A subsequent netting project was conducted in that area in 2009 with no luck
• Anecdotal information indicates young sturgeon are being caught in the Mattagami River
• In 2010 Timmins Fur Council teamed up with O’Gorman students and conducted a netting project below Sandy Falls, again, no luck.
• More monitoring work will be scheduled into the future.

Action Item 09-10-02: The 2010 Mattagami River sturgeon netting project was filmed and will be provided to the LCC at a later date.

Grassy River Portage Trails Cleanup and Re-establishment Project

• The Timmins Fur Council in partnership with MRCA and OPG completed a re-establishment and clean up of canoe portage trails from Canoeshed Lake to Mattagami River
• A total of ten trails were re-established by volunteers who worked throughout the spring and summer.

Erection of Crime Stopper Sign

• The Fur Council erected a Crime Stopper sign at the intersection of the Mica Bay Road and Papakomeka Roads.

In addition, if you are interested in ordering wild rice, contact Andy

The LCC Chair thanked Andy for the Timmins Fur Council update.

Abitibi Water Power Facility-Nikki Wood

Nikki provided the LCC members with a description of the Abitibi Water Power Facility Lease. The following provides the key points of her discussion:

• In 1910 the MNR issued a Water Power Lease and tied it to the Pulp and Paper Mill
• Every subsequent lease renewal did not have that clause. This was not a hidden agenda it was business as usual as water power leases were not/are not normally tied to a paper mill they were/are usually issued to a power company
• For the IF facility, consent is required for transfers to companies who are not affiliates of the leaseholder (i.e. a third party).
• As of April 8, 2010 The Ministry had not received a formal proposal from ABBO about the potential sale or transfer of any of its waterpower facilities located on crown land.
• Under the Water Power Lease Agreements in effect, the crown’s written consent may be required prior to assigning, subletting, selling or transferring any part of the premises subject to each lease.- for the IF facilities, (Twin Falls, Iroquois Falls and Island Falls)consent is required for transfers to companies who are not affiliates of the leaseholder (i.e. a third party). That is, sale of these three stations to a third party would require the Crown’s prior consent. The leases expire December 31, 2022.
• ABBO’s has stations in Kenora and Fort Francis districts that are on private land and consent is not required to sell these stations to a third party. They also have Sturgeon Falls and Calm Lake stations that are on crown land and sale of the two stations to a third party would require the Crown’s prior consent. These lease expire Decemebr 31, 2014.

Q-How much of the water power facility does Abitibi own?

A-Abitibi owns 75% of the facility

Q-How much does Abitibi have ownership in regards to the lease?

A-Not sure

Xstrata-Biodiversity Work- Stefanie Thibeault

Stefanie provided the LCC members with a presentation on Xstrata’s work to date on its local biodiversity studies within proximity to its mining operations in the Timmins area:

• Xstrata is a global company with a world wide presence
• The company’s aim is to preserve long term health by avoiding, minimising or mitigating any significant impacts of our activities and operations on the environment.
• The Company will do this by having plans and procedures in place to effectively manage and conserve the biodiversity affected by operations.
• A number of biodiversity studies have been completed to date which include Identification and monitoring of Biodiversity Risk Indicators, Preliminary Biodiversity Risk Assessment, Aquatic and Lichen Baseline surveys, Biological Inventories and Opportunity study, Owl Baseline Survey, Environmental Effects Monitoring Survey.
• Main components of the Biodiversity Report includes the general study area, land use forest ecosystem, aquatic ecosystem, flora and fauna species at risk, protected areas and site specific ecological values.
• The challenges in assessing for biodiversity are the scarcity of site specific flora and fauna biodiversity data, field vegetation survey increased the number of confirmed species near the site but still has a number of probable species.
• Field surveys only provide a snap shot in time which may not confirm the species’ presence.
• The study area was divided up by mine site, railway corridor and Met site.
• A total of 50 plots were established across the range. The 20X20 metre plots were spaced within 1 km distance of each other. The area is composed of typical boreal forest and the species richness ranged from 18 at the mine site to 25 At the Met site.
• The biodiversity findings included maintenance and development of diverse habitat by preserving existing habitat, increasing grasslands, manage selected forests, preserve rare habitat and re-establish riparian zones along water courses and ditches.
• Facilitate the movement for species between habitats by ensuring linkages and preventing fragmentation
• Increase natural structural complexities through enhancement and rehabilitation methods such as constructing bat and bird boxes, planting berry bushes and mast trees and provide for woody debris.
• The study also provided a number of sensitive species either confirmed or probable in the study plots. (see attached presentation)
• The company reviewed other study areas including Echo Bay mines-Aquarius project EA (1996) where 5 notable bird species were observed such as the black tern, double crested cormorant, wood duck, brown thrasher and the eastern wood pee-wee; Pamour Gold Mine Expansion project EA which noted the presence of a horned grebe; OPG Upper Mattagami project noted the presence of several individuals of orchids and the presence of monarch butterflies during the summer months in open habitats around Timmins.
• The company has also set up a new values reporting system by encouraging their employees to report any new sightings of birds, animals in the vicinity of their operations.
• The Company is involved in community partnership programs in the areas of health, education, environmental and sustainable development, social and community development, culture and arts and job creation
• The Company sponsors an employee recognition program where $1000.00 is donated to a charity the employee volunteers their time.
• Since 2007 the Company has donated $1,420,000 in funds, goods and in-kind personnel time
• The Company has embarked on a number of partnerships and surveys with other clubs and agencies (see attached presentation for details)
• Kidd Mine and Kidd Metallurgical sites have developed and implemented Biodiversity Conservation Plans.
• These Plans provide specific objectives such as implementing recommendations for the olive sided fly-catcher, complete the baseline study for the owl study, communicate the findings of the biodiversity studies.
• The Company will implement the plans by communicating with stakeholders, provide for knowledge improvements, provide for mitigating measures where required, prepare to rehabilitate affected lands.

Stefanie wrapped up her presentation with “What projects can you suggest Xstrata could get involved in to improve the community?”

There was a round table discussion that followed her presentation about the “Timmins orchid” which is an apparent strain of orchid found specifically in the Timmins area.

The LCC Chair thanked Stafanie for her presentation.

Romeo Malette Forest Update- Lino Morandin

Lino provided the LCC members with an update on the RMF Forest:

• Tembec has an amendment proposed for a new aggregate pit, soon to be approved.
• Presently, Georgia Pacific, Tembec and Eacom are actively harvesting on the forest.
• The harvest for 2010 will be above the annual allowable harvest levels
• In 2011, harvest levels will return to normal
• An aerial spray project was conducted on the forest and is now complete for the year.
• There were no grinding operations conducted on the forest this year.

Following Lino’s update there were a few questions:

• Q-Can cottagers obtain gravel for their personal needs
• A-Tembec will allow people gravel provided that they have a contractor that is properly insured. The only pits available for the public are Category 9 and 10’s. The former Category 14 pits are only available for the forest company to be used for forestry purposes.
• Q- Will there be active forest harvest blocks on the Telluride Road this winter
• A-Yes

Abitibi River Forest Update- Kees Stryland

Kees provided the LCC members with a quick update on the ARF which included:

• An Abitibi River Forest Planning Team has been formed to draft a 2012-22 FMP.
• The Terms of Reference has been recently drafted and has been sent out to the three District Managers in Cochrane Kirkland Lake and Timmins for their review and approval.
• Planning Team training sessions have commenced.
• Three LCCs will be involved in the plan and Kees will represent the Timmins LCC at the Planning table.
• The Invitation to Participate has just been sent out to the public and the ad was in the newspaper.

Round Table-All

• Very informative meeting- excellent presentations
• Would like to have a future presentation on the Far North Act
• Nice to see good things happening in mining
• Interesting approach that Xstrata has developed regarding biological inventory and monitoring of their study area. Would like to see more of this approach with forest management activities
• Xstrata thanked the LCC for the invitation to explain their biodiversity strategy
• Lino invited the LCC members to fly Free to grow surveys with the Company-anyone is welcome.
• Enjoyed the mining presentations and happy to see their involvement with the community.
• The snowmobile club wants to get more involved with the public.

The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm

Next Meeting is scheduled for November 24, 2010 at the Fire Boardroom of the OGC.

Next meeting scheduled for November 24, 2010 at the Fire Boardroom of the Ontario Government Complex. Please contact Gail Krawchuk at gga@ntl.sympatico.ca if you cannot attend.

Minutes typed by: Minutes approved by:

…………………… …………………………

Gail Krawchuk Bill Russell

LCC Secretary Chair