Business leader bursting with pride opening Tim Hortons in Nipissing First Nation

By Kelly Anne Smith

NIPISSING FIRST NATION— You might see quite a few Sidney Crosby hats this winter as the swag was flying off the new counter along with hot coffee and fresh timbits at the new Tim Hortons between North Bay and Sturgeon Falls on Beaucage Road during the grand opening.

In her speech, owner Lorie Young says the dust is starting to settle and things are falling into place since the soft opening of her venture about a month earlier.

“Fifteen months ago, we stood on this very spot and we did a ground-breaking ceremony. Those 15 months ago, it still didn’t feel like the future but now looking at this beautiful building and this complex it’s finally real,” Young recalls. “Opening a Tim Hortons, as we all know, has been a lifelong dream of mine. To finally see it come to fruition is absolutely amazing.”

Young talked about special moments for her that included flicking on the lights for the first time when the building was done. She says getting the first order was euphoric.

Her staff are phenomenal, says Lorie. Currently, there are 35 people employed at the Tim Hortons and the gas bar has 15 people employed.

Lorie Young’s Tim Hortons stands out as unique across Canada. There are four giant totem poles handcarved by Algonquin artist Dan Labrecque prominently standing at the front of the building as it welcomes patrons. Lorie calls him the man behind all the talent. The entrance is adorned with his work as well as the carvings inside the teepees.

Artwork from local talented artists Alexander Dokis, Kat Serre, Pamela Goulais, and Micheal Cynwick is also displayed on the new building.

In addition to the Tim Hortons, there is the Wolves Den Canco Gas Bar, which also boasts a gallery featuring large photos of community members on the columns to be admired when filling up.

“I also took it upon myself to put pictures of community members on the columns at the gas station – people in the community that I felt need acknowledging. I wanted people who come in here and gas up to look up at those pictures and says, ‘Wow, those are beautiful human beings’,” says Lorie.

Opening a Tim Hortons has been a dream of Lorie Young since 2006.

“I put in a couple of applications to Tim Hortons over the years and I always got turned down. Then one year, I think it was 2012, I attended my daughter’s hockey tournament in Mississauga for the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships and Ted Nolan was her coach. I got talking to his wife (Sandra), and she mentioned that Ted was working for Tim Hortons to get Tim Hortons on First Nation lands. At that time, I said, ‘Wow, I’m going to jump on this. We met with Ted and we got the ball rolling. He asked if we had a spot to open and we had this idea in mind. We knew there was a lot of traffic coming through Highway 17 here, a lot of trucking.”

Acknowledging Nipissing First Nation was an important piece of making her new building authentically First Nation.

“I’m so proud of this land. I’m so proud of what Nipissing First Nation has done and how we are perceived throughout the country. So, I really wanted to give back to the community. I wanted people to know outside of our First Nation that this a First Nation Tim Hortons. We are fully capable and we can compete with non-Indigenous companies and succeed at it.”

Thus far, Young has been given excellent feedback.

“I’ve been hearing from both people in North Bay and Sturgeon Falls. Because the Tim Hortons is very, very busy, they take the opportunity to stop here.”

Young has put a lot of thought into her customer’s need for speed.

“I’ve got a double-lane drive-thru that is a lot faster for customers to go in and out. We have a lot of people that travel back and forth for work and we have a lot of people that go back and forth for hockey. I wanted to make it accessible for those people so my hours are from 5am to 11pm.”

In the one month that Lorie’s Tim Hortons has been open, sales have tripled, she says, and projects continued growth.

“And the word is getting out more and more. It’s going to grow even more. I know it.”