TIMMINS - The city is finding its way, says Mayor Michelle Boileau.
Delivering her third state of the city speech, Boileau talked about what's happened over the past year and gave glimpses of what's to come. The annual event hosted by the Timmins Chamber was held at the Porcupine Dante Club on March 26.
“In just one year things have really changed, yet my vision for the community has remained the same," she told the business crowd, explaining she wants a safe, sustainable and solutions-oriented community.
Among the changes she alluded to are the new United States President Donald Trump threatening Canada's sovereignty, and Canada's new prime minister.
"And while nothing really changed (provincially) … we did get to go to the polls a year early, causing a little bit of a distraction for government and for residents, but that’s neither here nor there because Timmins fared well once again," she said.
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The provincial election saw George Pirie re-elected. While he's no longer Minister of Mines, he has picked up a new portfolio — Minister of Northern Economic Development and Growth.
Boileau said she and Pirie call themselves "Team Timmins".
“This is important because Timmins hasn’t seen this kind of working relationship between city hall and our MPP’s office in a long time. No Mayor and MPP duo have been able to deliver what we have together for Timmins,” she said.
The talk of Team Timmins did not include the federal representation. In the early days of a federal election, the three known candidates — Liberal Steve Black, NDP Nicole Fortier-Levesque and Conservative Gaétan Malette, as well as retiring MP Charlie Angus — were at the event.
The notable achievements she said she and Pirie have attained are $2 million from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) for recreation projects, $9 million to help develop the Melrose Heights subdivision north of J.V. Bonhomme Boulevard, and $20 million for Municipal Road.
The City of Timmins also received over $3 million for an encampment response initiative, which the municipality has partnered with the Cochrane District Services Board for.
“And, though it may not be what we really need, which is more funding for mental health and addictions supports and services in our community, we’ll take all that we can get on this front,” she said.
Boileau also highlighted some of the achievements of city staff and council over the past year.
Service Timmins, she said, responded to 29,182 calls, averaging 6,258 interactions per agent. Bylaw dealt with 2,651 cases in 2024, and has already had 723 so far in 2025.
As of March 21, she said 29,909 loads of snow had been removed this year, and 992 potholes patched, including 101 with the Python, a semi-automated, one-person pothole filler.
At the council table, she noted several bylaws that had been approved. They include the parklands bylaw, which addressed concerns about vandalism, littering, overnight camping and public loitering, the vacant buildings registry, and updating the short-term accommodations bylaw to include Air BnBs and VRBOs.
The city has also adopted or received the transportation master plan, housing action plan and airport master plan.
“I’m sure to some of you, all of these plans just sound like money being spent on how to spend money, that will eventually be shelved somewhere and never actually implemented. But, I tell you, that’s not what’s happening here,” she said.
Now officially under the city's wing, the Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) has dropped the 'C', she said, and is now known as TED. Tourism has been added to its responsibilities, and it's overseeing the new Rural Communities Immigration Pilot and Francophone Communities Immigration Pilot programs.
The new city department was at the massive Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference in Toronto from March 2-5.
“After receiving feedback from many of you, in fact, following last year’s event, it was obvious that you wanted Timmins to have more of a presence at what’s known to be the world’s premier mineral exploration and mining convention,” she said.
At the conference, she said the first Timmins reception was held. Over the four-day event, the TED estimates that 140 people stopped by the Timmins booth.
Council is investing in the city's future, she said.
“The past three years we’ve seen the largest capital budgets in the city’s history. And again, that’s not just because we need to upgrade and maintain what we currently have, which is quite costly, but because we are actively preparing for growth and prosperity for our community,” said Boileau.
Soon, she'll be asking for an update on the housing community improvement program. People can expect to hear more about parks and recreation, including more work on the planning, design and financing models for a potential multi-use recreation complex.
“There’s also a bit of race among the five northern cities to see who could build Northern Ontario’s first real cricket pitch. I want Timmins to win that race,” she said.
An industrial detour route continues to be on the table.
Boileau said she's pushing hard for a network of detour routes.
"By no means do we want to stop these trucks from running because we know that if that’s the case that’s the end of Timmins. But we want to try and get them off of our critical infrastructure, out of the way of our emergency responses,” she said.