Timmins seeks new site for shelter, permanent encampment

With a deadline looming for provincial funding, Timmins is accelerating plans to relocate its Living Space shelter and establish a permanent encampment.

Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau, who also chairs the Cochrane District Services Board, said a team comprised of staff and community partners – including those representing Indigenous organizations – is on the search this week for a new location for the Living Space shelter and a permanent encampment site.

“They’ll be scoring different sites based on a predetermined matrix in order to be able to come back to the board with a recommendation,” said Boileau.

The mayor said that with the provincial approval window narrowing, the hope is to have a lease agreement in place before the end of the calendar year.

Timmins city councillor and Cochrane District Services Board member, Steve Black, said the province will have the final say when it comes to how Timmins uses the $3.2 million that is earmarked for the establishment of a permanent encampment.

“The final plan is always subject to provincial approval, so it’s on the table, I believe, that they have to be in agreement with the final selection and that the operation of the site aligns with what the original submission and awarded funding was for,” said Black.

“So, it does have a provincial approval mechanism within that process.”

Neither Boileau nor Black would share locations at this time, but Boileau said they have potential and new property owners in the area coming on board daily with options. Black told CTV News that the goal is for the property to be located outside residential zones.

“Not to say, you know, that there won’t be any house, nearby, whatever the selected facility is or what that distance offset distance may be, but the goal is to put it in a non-residential area,” he said.

Boileau said they’re trying to be open to different configurations, and at this time, the plan would be to allow tents and to have the shelter and the encampment on the same property.

“So, right now it’s to try not to be too prescriptive in terms, you know, because we don’t want to be eliminating sites that might have some potential,” she said.

Boileau said the $3.2 million in funding would be from the province’s emergency response initiative and is only to be spent on capital costs and not used for operational expenses.