Barrie budget deliberations continue Thursday

There certainly was a lot of back and forth tonight as Barrie city councillors officially dove into the 2023 budget.

City councillors approved an amendment to cancel the newly created stormwater climate action fund, saying now was not the time to invest in the new program.

"There's a reason that a previous council didn't say yes at the time and immediately put it into the budget and left it for someone else. I'll let you deduct or deduce whatever that reason is but there's a reason. There's a reason it was left on the plate of the 11 people around the table here because there's nothing fun about an 8 per cent tax increase," said Mayor Alex Nuttall, Barrie mayor.

The program approved by the previous council was meant to help fund stormwater management operations, creating a separate fund adding nearly $130 annually to the average homeowner. Now those funds will revert back to coming from the tax levy.

Councillors were also addressing transit, passing an amendment that would protect seniors from an upcoming increase to transit fares.

"In the intake form, we weren't forecasting to bring an increase in any fares this year; it was 2024. But because of the economic state, it is being bumped up a year. Having been on the seniors' advisory committee over the last year and involved in the age-friendly community plan, transportation was one of the key contingencies around an accessible city," said Counc. Anne-Marie Kungl.

City councillors also brought forth a new amendment in regards to helping with costs for staff overtures that were from 2022 but pushed over to this year's budget.

By the end of the night, Barrie's director of finance Craig Millar said, "So for city operations, we started at 0.88 per cent per the amendments tonight we are now down to zero per cent,"

Budget deliberations continue Thursday with a focus on the capital plan.

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