Timmins Local Citizens Committee

Minutes of March 28, 2012

March 28, 2012

LCC hours: 54 hours

Year to Date: 272

Total: 6345.4

Date: March 28, 2012

Location: Ontario Government Complex, Fire Boardroom

Present: Robert Calhoun, Barry Edwards, Dave Stringer, Mark Joron, Marc Lapalme, Lino Morandin, Rusty Fink, Ron Johnson, Kees Stryland, Scott Tam, Stefanie Thibeault, Kees Pols, Marcel Cook

Regrets: James Naveau, Gail Krawchuk, Pamela Reid, Jenny Millson, Allan Moyle, Bob Bielek, Andy Chartrand, Bill Russell

Absent:

MNR:Glen McFarlane, Nikki Wood, Randy Pickering, Jason Postma

Guests: Mr. Lapalme

Call to Order:

Robert Calhoun called the meeting to order at 6:45 p.m.

Summary of Action Items for This Meeting:

Action Item 03-12-01: Stefanie to present the Xstrata Biodiversity Plan at a future meeting

Review and Approval of February 29, 2012 Minutes:

• Motion to accept- Marc Lapalme

• Seconded by- Marcel Cook

• All in favour-Carried

Review and Approval of tonight’s agenda:

Proposed last minute changes in the agenda to include the 2012 weather forecast from MNR Fire and IFA LCC responsibility to fill the cancellation of FRMG Landscape Viewscape Analysis Demonstration topic on the agenda.

• Motion to accept- Lino Morandin

• Seconded by- Kees Pols

• All in favour-Carried

Letters/Correspondence

• Official recorded letter from the LCC regarding MNR public counter service changes was sent to the District Manager and corresponding letter response to the LCC were submitted for file as follow-up to the January 2012 LCC recommendation to the District Manager.

District Manager Update- Randy Pickering

Randy provided the Committee members with a district update as follows:

• The Upper Mattagami Watershed met on March 19, 2012 to discuss the spring freshet conditions for the Mattagami River watershed.

• An early spring led to a Mattagami Flood Advisory meeting on March 21, 2012.

• A significant rise in the water level and recorded flows exceeding 350cms at Sandy Falls initiated the Flood Advisory Group to review the situation

• A stage 1 flood watch was issued

• The group met again on March 26^th and upon review of the conditions dropped the stage 1 watch

• A return of more seasonal conditions brought the water levels down.

• The MNR and MOE were notified about two tailings dam breaches as a result of the quick spring thaw. 1 breach took place at the Kamiskotia tailings facility and the other one took place at the Brigus facility (Stock Mine)

• Both of these events are being taken care of by industry and government agencies

FMP-Training Module2- Learning Compass- Nikki Wood

Nikki provided the LCC members with FMP Training Module 2 focussed on schedule of Plan production. The module takes you through setting objectives; development of management strategy; allocating harvest areas; development of prescriptions.

The plan takes two years to develop starting with Invitation to participate, proposed long term direction, proposed operations, review of draft plan, MNR approval, plan implementation.

FMP-Training Module3-Learning Compass- Nikki Wood

Nikki provided the LCC members with FMP Training Module 3 focussed on the Long Term Management Direction. The LTMD is the long term management strategy which addresses state and history of the forest, desired forest benefits, harvest models that take into account wildlife habitat needs and forest growth tables by forest species and forest units.

Weather Outlook for 2012- Randy Pickering

Randy provided the Timmins LCC members with a Forest Fire Management presentation on weather predictions for 2012 as follows:

• Precipitation and temperature models indicating trends for the year

• Jet stream trends; interesting trend over the winter which showed the jet stream staying high enough into the arctic which actually affected weather trends in Europe where their winter was colder than normal and our winter above normal

• Predictions from Environment Canada indicate March-May as being above normal temperature and normal precipitation; our summer should stay consistently above normal in temperature and slightly drier than normal precipitation.

Nighthawk Lake Cemetery Restoration Project- Jason Postma

Jason provided the Timmins LCC members with a presentation on the Nighthawk Lake cemetery restoration project that took place this past winter. The following represents the main points of his discussion (Slide presentation attached):

• Cemetery point located on Nighthawk Lake is a known historical aboriginal burial site

• In 2009 people reported that human remains were appearing in this area.

• MNR followed up on the report to find that the shoreline was eroding and human remains were surfacing

• In the fall of 2009 an archaeologist was hired to secure the sites and re-intern the remains

• Due to the nature of the extent of the erosion, a more aggressive approach to secure the site was required

• A plan to secure the site for the long term was worked on in partnership with Matachewan First Nation, Mattagami First Nation, MNR district and Engineering staff and Ontario Power Generation.

• A plan was put into place and the project was initiated through the winter when lake levels were lowered and the ground could be frozen to allow for access of heavy machinery.

• The plan consisted of encasing the eroding shoreline and bluff with rock rubble.

• The project commenced in early February with the opening of a winter road to allow for frost to penetrate the swampy terrain to the lake shore

• Once frozen, rock donated by Goldcorp was trucked to the site and carefully placed at the burial site and a berm was constructed along the shoreline to assist with breaking wave action.

• The project was funded by MNR, Goldcorp and OPG and on site supervision and project guidance was provided by MNR and First Nation Representative

• The project was successfully completed just before our early spring break up.

Following Jason’s presentation there were a number of questions as follows:

Q: Why does MNR get involved; shouldn’t it be federal responsibility

A: Crown land, MNR is the custodian

Q: Were there just First Nation buried at this site?

A: There was a trading post site on the lake; possibly burial site for both First Nation and Traders

Further round table discussion followed. The Chairman thanked Jason for his presentation.

RMF Update-Rusty Fink/ Lino Morandin

Rusty and Lino provided the Timmins LCC members with the following update:

• The Romeo Malette Forest is scheduled for an Independent Forest Audit this summer/fall

• The RMF is also scheduled to start the FMP phase 2 planning for the second 5 years of the ten year plan

• Currently there is some log hauling taking place and also some spring logging over the next couple of weeks.

ARF Contingency FMP Update- Kees Stryland

Kees provided the LCC members with an update on the ARF FMP as follows:

• The Planning Team will continue to move forward with the 10 year plan for implementation in April 2013.

• The team is working towards proposed operations to be completed by June followed by draft plan.

• Lots of work taking place with the core groups working on road responsibilities, AOC planning.

Round Table Discussions-All

• Interesting meeting

• Interesting discussion on weather

• LCC learning modules are interesting; lots to learn

• Enjoyed Jason’s presentation

• The Timmins Snowmobile club is working on trail planning in the Shining-tree area for next year

• Stefanie Thibeault introduced Xstrata’s Bio-diversity Plan; possible future LCC topic

The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm

Next Meeting is scheduled for April 25, 2012 at the Fire Boardroom of the OGC.

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