So what’s in the city portion of the 2025 operating and capital budget for the typical Barrie homeowner?
Not a by-the-book property tax increase next year, at least not yet.
City councillors gave initial approval tonight (Dec. 4), with no amendments or discussion, to a tax-supported base budget for city operations, as well as the infrastructure investment fund, with gross expenditures of $342.6 million, a net property tax levy requirement of $197.8 million and no increase in property taxes for the city’s portion of operations.
Final approval by city council is slated for its Dec. 11 meeting.
Mayor Alex Nuttall put the city portion of the 20205 operating budget in perspective.
“In the financial conditions that we’re living in today, it is a very, very difficult time for many, many families,” he said. “I think that we’ve been able to strike a really strong balance for this year (2025) where we’re continuing with that zero per cent on the (city) operations.
“We are going ahead with a very robust infrastructure plan,” Nuttall added. “We’re funding that plan and will work with all of our service partners (Barrie Police Service, County of Simcoe, Barrie Public Library) in the next couple of months to finalize their budgets. But certainly the budget time is a stressful time.”
This comes with, as previously stated, no increase to the city portion of the operating budget — which pays for more than 60 city services such as firefighting, snow clearing, road repairs, garbage pick-up, transit, parks and recreation, and water treatment.
But the city’s infrastructure investment levy, or capital rehabilitation tax, is to increase by two per cent next year — which costs the typical Barrie home with an assessed value of $369,000, and paying $4,994 in property taxes, another $99.88 in 2025.
It also adds $6.4 million to city coffers — half for tax-based infrastructure, to repair and replace Barrie’s roads, pipes, buildings and bridges, the other half for stormwater infrastructure.
And the same typical home using 180 cubic metres of water/sewer would pay an annual water bill of $420 (which is $16 more than this year) and $615 for sewer (or $28.87 more than 2024).
Adding $99.88, $16 and $28.87 equals $144.75 more for that typical Barrie homeowner right off the bat.
Just for comparison’s sake, the 2024 operating/capital budget included a 4.82 per cent tax increase to Barrie homeowners, which equals $228 more this year on a typical city home assessed at $368,000. That hike was, of course, with no increase to the city’s operating portion of the budget.
So there is more pressure to come on city taxpayers for 2025.
Police, county and library still to come
At this point, for example, next year’s police budget is $71.43 million, which is $3.9 million or 5.79 per cent more than this year. The police budget is traditionally about 20 per cent of Barrie’s operating budget, and the largest portion.
An October 2024 phone survey — commissioned by the city, by Oraclepoll Research — of 1,000 Barrie residents 18 or older, asked which local services should receive greater funding from municipal taxes paid.
Policing topped the list at 25 per cent, followed by infrastructure, roads and sidewalks at 18 per cent. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 per cent.
Oraclepoll also asked what was the main issue facing Barrie residents, and 28 per cent said the cost of living — followed by community safety, policing and crime at 13 per cent, housing at 12 per cent, addictions, drugs and opioids at 11 per cent, and poverty and homelessness at 11 per cent.
“We have an amount of folks who are being affected on the affordability front right now and it doesn’t matter whether you own or you rent, the reality is that taxes eventually get paid,” Nuttall said.
“And so we need to be very cognizant of what we’re spending money on, how we’re spending money and how we can maintain service levels through finding efficiencies rather than just going back to the tax lever and pulling it again and again and again," the mayor added.
“On the city operations side, that’s something we can actually do. I think it’s a healthy way to live."
Barrie also pays its share of services provided to the city by the County of Simcoe — social housing, paramedics, Ontario Works, long-term care, etc. — and that, combined with police spending, likely means city homeowners face an overall 2025 property tax hike when the bill comes due.
Oraclepoll also asked Barrie residents if they were willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the city’s service partners — police, county, library — and found 48 per cent said no, 38 per cent said yes and 14 per cent were unsure.
Police spending and Barrie’s share of county services are the two most significant pressures on 2025 tax levels.
To maintain those 60-plus services, the city is spending another $7.2 million next year and a further $700,000 for new service levels.
The city also plans to hire 13 full-time equivalency employees next year to help deliver services.
The forecast assessment growth of $6 million in 2025 will help the balance of expenditures and revenues.
City staff are also to establish an automated speed enforcement (ASE) reserve, to be funded through net fine revenue collected (after offsetting costs associated with operating the program) and the money available in this reserve would be used for temporary and permanent traffic calming measures such as speed cushions, intersection improvements (including raised intersections), road improvements, more traffic signals, flexible bollards, planters, radar speed boards, expanding the ASE program.
What's new in there?
New 2025 capital budget projects include sidewalks on Edgehill Drive, east of Pringle Drive, to connect to existing sidewalks. This would cost $975,000, with 60 per cent of its funding from development charge (DC) reserves and 40 per cent from the tax capital reserve.
Another new capital project called ‘Little Lake Boardwalk and Dock’ would cost $500,000 and be funded from the tax capital reserve.
Also in the budget is new park lighting and park furniture at Ferndale Woods Park costing $100,000 in 2025, funded from the tax capital reserve.
And also in the capital budget is a new splash pad at the Peggy Hill Team (formerly Holly) Community Centre, costing $50,000 in 2025 and $1.25 million in 2026, again to be funded from the tax capital reserve.
The 2025 capital budget totals $441.9 million, including $308.1 million in previously approved funding and $133.7 million in new funding requests.
It also contains Barrie’s sixth fire station on Mapleview Drive East. Announced last August, when shovels went into the ground, it’s to take 14 to 18 months to build and cost $10.4 million. It’s being funded largely from DC reserves.
DCs are designed to recover the capital costs associated with residential and non-residential (commercial, industrial, institutional) growth within a municipality from developers so that existing residents don’t have to foot the bill.
The 2025 capital budget could also include Barrie’s new performing arts centre, slated for the current Sea Cadets/Navy League site on Kempenfelt Bay, near the Spirit Catcher, once the General John Hayter Southshore Community Centre has its addition for the young sailors.
The Southshore addition is a northerly extension to the basement of the existing building. It comes with a $4.55-million price tag, with $300,000 committed by council for the addition’s plan and design. City staff will 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.
The performing arts centre would be designed with a maximum total building cost of $65 million in hard and soft construction costs for the building itself, including fit-out of all seating and audio-visual components, and be funded in part from the city’s theatre reserve — which had a balance of $7.6 million as of early October.
Barrie’s reserve balance in 2025 is forecast at $251 million, and the increase in city reserves during the next five years is expected to be $122 million.
The city’s current debt level is $271 million, forecast to drop to $254 million in five years.
This is what’s called Barrie’s strong mayors budget.
Nuttall has instructed staff to prepare a motion approving a 2025 tax-supported base budget for city operations and the infrastructure investment fund, with gross expenditures of $342.6 million and a net property tax levy requirement of $197.8 million.
Ontario’s Municipal Act provides the head of council with the authority to give direction to city staff in writing, and one from Nuttall this year is a zero per cent increase in the city’s operating budget, according to a budget memo on mayoral direction to city staff, from Nuttall, dated July 12, 2024.
“We’ve seen a few service enhancements,” Nuttall said of the city portion of the budget. “We’ve also seen that it’s holding the line on a tax increase on the city operations. Obviously, that’s something I committed to in the (2022 mayoral) election. We’re now three years of that … being assumed (with council approval Dec. 11). And I’ve already given the direction to include that (no tax increase) for next year as well.”
Property taxes are calculated based on the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation’s (MPAC) assessed value. MPAC last did a province-wide assessment in 2016, so Barrie’s property values are significantly lower than actual 2024 or 2025 market values.
At this point the meeting schedule calls for the city portion of spending to be passed by city council Dec. 11.
Councillors will receive 2025 budgets from city service partners — county, police and library — on Jan. 8, then hear presentations of these budgets Jan. 15.
General committee’s budget talks will be Jan. 22, with city council approval of the total operating and capital budgets on Jan. 29.
