City council needed a 7-4 recorded vote Wednesday night to put Barrie’s poet laureate position in line for a bigger budget and a reorganization to boot.
The approved motion increases the position’s total yearly expenditure to $4,250 from $1,000, and reduces the term to two years, down from four, beginning in 2026.
This motion also has three city councillors replace a chief librarian, or library CEO, the poet laureate from another community and a municipal culture staffer on Barrie’s poet laureate selection committee.
Coun. Amy Courser tried to change the last section by keeping the chief librarian, another poet laureate and culture staff, then just adding two city councillors to the selection committee.
“I wasn’t comfortable taking away our community partners, people within the community that would be sitting on the committee,” she said. “I think that we should be inviting more people outside of council to be involved in some decisions.”
But a majority of councillors had other ideas.
“There is such a thing as too many board members,” said Coun. Sergio Morales. “I do sympathize with the comment the more voices the better.”
The motion for all of the changes — budget, term of office and selection committee — went to a recorded vote.
Councillors Clare Riepma, Nigussie Nigussie, Gary Harvey, Jim Harris, Morales, Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson and Mayor Alex Nuttall supported it
Councillors Craig Nixon, Ann-Marie Kungl, Courser and Bryn Hamilton were opposed.
This budget increase would involve hiking the poet laureate’s annual stipend to $2,500 from $1,000, and an additional $1,500 per year for a poetry event(s) or project(s) to be co-ordinated and led by the poet laureate and pre-approved by the city’s economic and creative development department — aligned with its goals and those of council. Eligible and pre-approved expenses would be reimbursed through the department.
There would also be as much as $250 annually in travel expenses related to kilometre reimbursement, at the city rate.
City staff have compared Barrie’s poet laureate spending with the similar and nearby municipalities of Collingwood, Kingston, Mississauga and Windsor, determining the annual poet laureate stipend ranges from $2,350 to $5,000 — although each of those programs have additional roles and responsibilities beyond Barrie’s current program.
Common program expectations for the poet laureate are creating new, original works of one to four poems about Barrie that can be used as the city sees fit, developing and delivering poetry workshops, developing a legacy project during their term and hosting literary events.
The poet laureate is also required to appear at key city events and celebrations, with a minimum of three, at the Barrie Arts Awards, National Poetry Month and Culture Days.
A brief annual report is to be provided at the end of each year, during their term, outlining activities undertaken in the poet laureate role — such as event appearances, workshops, published works, etc.
Barrie’s poet laureate position, created in 2010, serves as a "literary ambassador and champion for poetry, language and the arts and will by their presence and their public readings deepen the tone and significance of civic occasions."
Their role is writing, publishing and performing poetry, educating the public on the value of poetry and the literary arts, encouraging and celebrating other local poets and writers, and promoting literacy in all age groups.
Bruce Meyer was Barrie’s first poet laureate, followed by Damian Lopes, Victoria Butler and Tyneisha Thomas, who is Barrie’s poet laureate for 2022-26.
