Barrie’s performing arts should shine by the city’s waterfront.
Marshall Green’s recent report — which was titled The Southshore, Barrie Sports and a Revitalized Downtown — recommends the current Sea Cadets/Navy League site, located near the Spirit Catcher, be the site of Barrie’s new performing arts centre (PAC).
Green, a retired lawyer with a specialty in municipal law and land-use planning, made the recommendation as part of his detailed report on city sports fields, which includes advice to city council not to build a synthetic turf, multi-purpose youth sports field and parade grounds, east of Military Heritage Park, close to Lakeshore Drive.
Iain Moggach, artistic director of Theatre by the Bay, was part of an advisory committee which helped Green with his report.
And he’s not shy with his feelings about a new PAC along Barrie’s lakeshore.
“I think it is a very bold and exciting prospect,” said Moggach. “There are many cities with a performing arts centre by the water and they are often considered a crown jewel of the community, so the idea is an exciting prospect.
“Now, it is time to get digging," he added.
The PAC design in mind carries a $65-million price tag and has theatres with 250 and 600 seats. There could also be flex seating — folded back to make the spaces available for receptions, conventions, larger and very small performances — although this feature could add another $10 million to the project’s cost.
It’s expected the PAC would be funded on a one-third basis from the feds, province and city, along with local fundraising.
The city’s theatre reserve contains just more than $7.6 million, money being set aside by council for a future PAC in Barrie, and $2.5 million is to be added to the reserve annually.
Ward 2 Coun. Craig Nixon, who represents the area, supports the location in Green’s report.
“The current site of the Barrie Sea Cadets would be a great spot for a new performing arts centre and is high on the list of potential locations,” he said. “I was never a big fan of the (former Barrie) Central Collegiate site, where patrons would be interrupted on a regular basis by the sirens of fire trucks next door leaving the busiest fire station in the city.
“This discussion has been going on for decades and it is time to get it built,” Nixon added. “Every year we wait just increases the final costs, which have gone through the roof since this was first proposed.”
Green also said it’s time to get going on a new PAC in Barrie.
“What was very important to me was that some of Barrie’s more unique contributions to the arts — specifically the Barrie Film Festival and the Canadian Musicians Co-operative reps felt that this facility could house their operations,” his report reads. “I do strongly urge the city not to disappoint the current art groups by delaying this facility much further.”
These are all just plans, however.
Building a new performing arts centre has not been debated by this council, elected in October 2022.
But still there is optimism.
“Having a multi-venue performing art centre has always been the goal, long since this specific proposal, so I think the concept will work quite well,” said Moggach.
He said the Barrie Arts Alliance’s position is that there are groups which are comfortably filling venues of 600 seats, if not larger, on a regular basis.
“If we are spending all this money, it would be worth investing in a facility that meets the potential and needs of what Barrie is growing to be, not what is already quite feasible for the community,” Moggach said. “Otherwise, we may end up with a similar situation to the Sadlon Arena where we built too small for all the potential uses the community could use it for.”
He noted 600 seats is smaller than the Orillia Opera House, or even the Georgian Theatre is now.
“So that number may need a bit more consideration, in my opinion,” Moggach said.
In April 2023, the city had a public open house on a community cultural hub, a different type of performing arts centre in Barrie.
The hub would prioritize a diverse range of uses and regular programming, rather than relying solely on a traditional retail entertainment centre model, be more widely accessible — as it would operate all day long, not just at performance time — and would feature a central commons area, a mid-size, 600-seat theatre, recital hall, screening room, multiple teaching and learning spaces, as well as arts offices.
The city retained Hariri Pontarini Architects (HPA) to review the previous (2018-22) council’s performing arts centre task force’s recommendations from then previous year — a maximum $53.1-million PAC, 66,500-square-foot facility with 900- and 350-seat theatres, plus a 5,000-sq.-ft. multi-purpose room on the since-demolished W.A. Fisher Auditorium site on Dunlop Street West.
Coun. Jim Harris, chairman of that PAC task force, said it looked at a number of city-owned sites before landing on the recommendation to proceed with the former Fisher site.
“At that time with no plan in place to relocate the Sea Cadets and with 25 years left on their lease, the area where the Sea Cadets are currently located was not given serious consideration,” he said. “However, there was considerable interest in the potential of having the theatre nearer the waterfront and closer to the west end of the downtown.
“With the potential move of the Sea Cadets now seeming more likely, there is significant interest in the potential of this site to be the home of our new performing arts centre," the councillor added.
Harris said the size of the main theatre proposed in Green’s report is smaller than what his task force recommended, 800 to 900 seats, but is much closer to what had been previously assessed by external consultants.
“The inclusion of the second theatre or multi-purpose space is something that was seen as essential when we reviewed theatres recently built in Brampton, Burlington, Richmond Hill and St. Catherines,” he said. “During our tour of these theatres, what became clear was the features of the theatre were critically important and some that had more seats lacked features that would be important to a new facility.”
HPA said the community cultural hub would cost less to build and operate than a PAC, or retail entertainment centre, which relies mostly on live presentations.
Green said HPA officials have been involved in talks which led to his recommendation that Barrie’s new PAC be at the Sea Cadets’ site.
The Sea Cadets/Navy League property, which is city-owned and located along Lakeshore Drive, could become available when the young sailors move to a new addition to the General John Hayter Southshore Community Centre, a northerly extension to the basement of the existing building. It has council approval and comes with a $4.55-million price tag.
At this point, $300,000 has been committed for the addition’s plan and design. City staff are to report back to councillors for future construction funding approval, once costing is refined through the design process.
No funding source for the Southshore’s Sea Cadets addition has been identified by the city.
