About Timmins

Timmins is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada on the Mattagami River. At 2,961.52 square kilometres, Timmins was Canada's largest municipality in land area until 1995, when the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alberta was created, although it remained the largest municipality in Ontario until 2001, when it was superseded by the newly amalgamated cities of Kawartha Lakes and Greater Sudbury. It is the 69th largest metropolitan area in Canada.

During the late 1600s, explorers and fur traders established outposts in the north to capitalize on the fur trade. The Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company later developed several trading posts along major routes in northern Ontario. The rivalry between these two trading companies resulted in the need to get their furs to market as soon as possible and this led to the development of the Porcupine Trail, a trading route that connected the Abitibi River to the Mattagami River and passed directly through present day Timmins.

Timmins' economy is based on a boom-and-bust business cycle. The city's economic state is controlled by its major industry, mining. When gold and base-metal prices are high the city's economy explodes, however, when those prices drop the local market historically dips with it.