Page 20 Contd on pg 21 By Kevin V incent He s a man on a mission If T immins new mayor gets his way a new era in relations between Ontario s indig enous peoples and municipal leaders is about to take place Pirie was sworn in as the city s top politician in early December and he has made it clear that he intends to dramatically alter the way T immi ns does business with a particular emphasis on relations with First Nations communities their lead ers and community members The former Placer Dome Canada CEO won a landslide victory over oneterm incumbent mayor Steve Black in the October 22nd election Black had also served a four year term as a city councilor in addition to a failed bid to become the area s MPP Black ran as a conservative candidate and was soundly defeated by the incumbent Pirie meanwhile has set his sights on redefning the landscape of resource extraction in Ontario and the impact it has on traditional First Nations ter ritories Pirie hinted at his plan of action dur ing the camp aign In a 20minute video released during the election Pirie spoke about his lengthy involve ment in negotiations with indigenous groups in Alaska that were based on an enti rely diferent model than the one that dominates the Canadian his tory around resource extraction trea ty rights and reconciliation As a starting point Pirie wants to es tablish an or ganization comprised of municipal leaders such as himself and area mayors along with chiefs and band representatives from across the north from traditional tribal territo ries It may not have any ofcial legisla tive power we could call it a council we could call it a senate but we have to start Pirie told Mining Life in an exclusive interview In my mind the reconciliat ion pro cess has to be one where we are sit ting beside one another not across the table from each other he adds Pirie says the reconciliation process needs to includ e recognition of tradi tional territorie s mutual involvement in the healing process and the intro duction of a revolutionary new model that works The best model Ive seen is the Alas ka model where 13 indigenous corpo rations were formed Of course this oversimplifes a very complex chal lenge but the Ring of Fire is too im portant for everyone involved to con tinue negotiati ng the way it has been done for the past decade Pirie is referring to the Calista Na tion and their economic development group now based in Anchorage where all parties reached an agreement to safely and responsibly develop natu ral resources while providing sig nifcant opportunities to the Calista people From the beginning Calista Corpora tion prioritized Shareholder involve ment and environmentally responsi ble development Under the Alaska Native Claims Set tlement Act Calista s regional leaders identifed the Donlin Creek area as one signifcant potential That poten tial was for Calista to fulfll an ANC SA mandate to safely and responsibly develop natural resources and the signifcant potential to provide oppor tunities to Calista Shareholders and Descendants In 1996 Calista and The Kuskok wim Corporation struck an agreement for mining rights with Placer Dome which has since been purchased by Barrick Gold Pirie was involved in that highly suc cessful project and he s anxious to bring that experience to bear in his new role as the head of T immins city council It allowed for a building of trust in the relationship Pirie ponders So that the Calista knew that their objec tives of preserving culture and the en vironment were shared by everyone at the discussion table But you have to be sitting at the same table to be able to build a trust in that relationship he adds I see this being entirely possible with T immins being at the center of it said Pirie Because it s so obvi ous that the same type of opportunity exists in the James Bay Lowlands Pirie goes on to add that it is time for things to move forward The status Mining Success and Indigenous Participation go Hand and Hand