Barrie taxpayers are footing some of the bill for Simcoe County councillors’ salaries, although the city plays only a limited role in the regional government.
Last year, Simcoe County councillors collectively took home $723,146. Barrie will pay $139,000 toward the salaries of the Simcoe County warden and county councillors in 2021, despite being a separated city, as is Orillia.
“I don’t like it, but I don’t think the city has any choice but to pay part of county council’s salaries, the same way we have to pay administrative costs for programs such as social services, land ambulance and the like which Simcoe County is mandated to provide to Barrie residents,” Deputy Mayor Barry Ward told BarrieToday. “It is a relatively small amount in the scheme of things, but it does highlight a problem with the county/separated cities relationship.
“We have the mayor and three city councillors on the county’s general committee (of the whole). They are allowed to discuss and vote on matters, such as social housing, that the cities of Barrie and Orillia help pay for,” he added. “But we have no representation when the matter comes up before Simcoe County council for approval. This is the definition of taxation without representation."
Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman also noted Barrie has four votes on Simcoe County’s committee of the whole for human services, so the city has some representation.
“However, it has always been problematic that Barrie doesn't have representation on county council for several reasons,” Lehman said. “In terms of salaries, the county council salaries are part of the governance of services which Barrie pays more than $20 million ($26.9 million in 2021, operating and capital) annually for, and given county council has 32 members, the amount per councillor is about ($4,300) per year, which is modest.”
Barrie and Simcoe County have a four-year municipal services management agreement which runs until Dec. 31, 2022. The distribution of administration costs portion of the agreement allocates the county’s corporate overhead costs among the three parties (Simcoe County, Barrie and Orillia) to ensure that the total cost of providing the services is reflected. Costs are adjusted annually to reflect changes in activity levels.
County clerk John Daly noted in a June 16 letter to Barrie treasurer Craig Millar that this agreement was referred for mediation and a settlement was approved May 25 by county council. It will provide an annual credit in recognition for the contribution of the city’s representatives to governance of the shared services. Dating back to January 2018, the annual amount paid to the Barrie is $24,000.
“With the rebate, it looks like that (the city’s share of council councillors’ salaries) will be reduced slightly,” Lehman said.
“That said, Barrie council has significant concerns about the tens of millions in capital funding we are providing to the county for social housing and related projects, which are being built in other places in the county,” he said. “We are concerned that Barrie has the highest housing need in the county, but we have not yet seen our own capital funds spent here to help solve the housing crisis.
“We will be reviewing this matter and our future support for county budgets in light of our current lack of representation on county council,” Lehman said.
The County of Simcoe was asked by BarrieToday why Barrie taxpayers should pay a portion of the salaries of Simcoe County councillors, including the warden, when the city has no representation on county council, nor the ability to vote for or against any member of Simcoe County council in municipal elections.
“As part of the administration cost, the cost-sharing structure within the agreement outlines an allocation toward governance, which includes warden and county council related expenses,” said Trevor Wilcox, the county’s general manager of corporate performance. “This is included due to the requirement for governance oversight of the shared services and programs provided to the residents of the county and City of Barrie.
“All decisions related to funding, service operation, policy and supports for the programs and services are made by the committee of the whole and are then recommended to county council for ratification,” Wilcox added. “In my tenure at the county, I have never seen council overturn a decision of the committee of the whole regarding the shared services. The City of Barrie has four voting members as part of the committee of the whole which can and do influence and vote on the items brought before the committee.”
Simcoe County Warden George Cornell had a similar opinion.
“We have a strong and long-standing partnership with the City of Barrie,” he said. “Our programs and services offered to the city, including paramedic services and social services, are essential, and are forecasted to have increased demand over the next five years.
“As with every level of government, including the city itself, important decisions on these matters are made at meetings of council,” Cornell added. “This is a standard model and we believe it will continue to provide strong value to the city and its residents.”
Ward said it isn’t that the relationship between Barrie and the county isn’t workable.
“I must say both county council and county staff have generally been very accommodating to the city’s wishes and I have no major complaints with the level of service offered in everything from museum and archives to social services,” he said. “But there is something wrong with a system where taxpayers in the county’s largest municipalities (Barrie and Orillia) have limited say in some of the most important matters faced by their citizens.”
Lehman agrees.
“Despite the lack of council representation, I have had a good working relationship with previous and the current warden, and county council has not ignored Barrie representatives when we raise issues,” he said. “The county provides excellent services and has several potential projects in the works in Barrie.
“That said, as the largest funding provider, we need to be able to demonstrate to Barrie taxpayers that we are seeing the impact of their dollars in our city," the mayor added.
“I also wanted to point out how a similar situation was handled in other regional organizations on which city councillors sit where, under Barrie rules, they are not allowed to collect any financial compensation despite Barrie taxpayers contributing to the budget which pays board members representing other municipalities,” Ward said. “Barrie receives a rebate equivalent to what the other municipal representatives get paid with the money going back into general coffers. That way, the city isn’t ‘subsidizing’ other municipal representatives.”
Wilcox also said major facility construction costs are totalled each year and then amortized during a 10-year payback. This discretionary cost treatment is provided by the county at the request of the City of Barrie to smooth out major capital costs, Wilcox said.
He said the municipal services management agreement establishes the terms by which the county will deliver the shared services to the city, including the sharing of costs for delivery of the services. The total cost for each service is made up of four components — operating costs, administration costs, major facility construction costs, and other capital costs.
The agreement has covered areas such as paramedic services, long-term care and seniors services, Ontario Works and social and community services such as affordable housing and shelter-related programs.
Wilcox said the county recently partnered with the city to enhance the approach to paramedic services and further reduce call response times with a hub-and-post model included in the Barrie-Simcoe Emergency Services Campus on Fairview Road.
Wilcox said the county continues to invest in social and community services, including the recent acquisition of new property in central Barrie for a future use, as well as the development of Lucy’s Place.
Within Barrie, the county provides significant funding to Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH), more than $20 million to date, Wilcox said, Georgian College’s Barrie campus, $9 million to date, and has been working to improve transportation connections to and from Barrie from surrounding communities, including Highway 50, expanding the LINX Transit system with many stops in Barrie, and expanding and growing the Lake Simcoe Regional Airport as the majority shareholder to serve as a key driver of the regional economy, including Barrie.
