Shaping Barrie’s Future

2017 Budget Review

NRU
Jan. 18, 2017
By Leah Wong

Barrie’s population is expected to increase 50 per cent by 2031. With an eye on the future, the city is laying the groundwork to diversify its economy and repair and maintain its infrastructure to support a growing number of residents.

Barrie council is considering a $220-million net operating budget, which includes a 3.76 per cent increase over 2016 that staff says will allow the city to grow its economy, address its infrastructure deficit and prepare for growth.

To diversify its economy, the city has set up a creative economy department to focus broadly on the creative sector. Invest Barrie executive director Zvi Lifshiz said in an email to NRU that this change allows the city to integrate the creative sector into its broader economic vision.

“The [new department] will integrate our start-up initiatives, our business innovations programs, and those efforts focused on enabling the development of our creative industries … together with culture, under [shared] leadership,” said Lifshiz.

Council has been asked to approve a $2.542-million gross operating budget for the creative economy department, which is 23.5 per cent higher than what was allocated to culture in the 2016 budget. The department will be led by a new director, who Lifshiz said should be hired in the first quarter of 2017.

The budget also addresses the need to invest in the rehabilitation of the city’s hard infrastructure - including roads, sidewalks, storm sewers, parks and facilities - by dedicating 1 per cent of its tax increase to the city’s infrastructure renewal fund. In 2017 the levy is expected to add about $2.5-million to the renewal fund, which was first introduced in 2014 to fund the maintenance of the city’s aging infrastructure.

Long-term financial sustainability is also a priority for planning and building services’ director Stephen Naylor, who has requested a $5.325-million gross operating budget for 2017, a 14.75 per cent increase over last year. The budget includes a $550,000 contribution to a proposed growth management reserve.

“If approved by council, the [growth management] reserve will be used to fund operating costs incurred in the normal course of business directly attributable to growth. [It] will be funded by the incremental application fee,” infrastructure and growth management general manager Richard Forward said in an email to NRU. “The end result of this approach will be to fully insulate the tax base from volatility in development.”

Guiding growth will be a priority for the planning department in 2017 as it starts its update of the city’s official plan, which was approved in 2010.

Council will consider the 2017 budget at its February 13 meeting.