Barrie councillors getting closer to approving 2024 budget

City councillors are nearing completion of this year's budget, with all service partners now receiving initial approval for their 2024 budget.

On Wednesday, sitting as general committee, councillors gave initial approval to the budgets for the City's major service partners. Those include:

• Barrie Police Service
• Barrie Public Library
• County of Simcoe
• Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority
• Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit

Collectively, these budgets equal about $110.9 million, with $98.1 million coming from just two of those partners, the police and the County.

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"I think for me it's about value for dollar. We need to make sure that the partners who are delivering the services on behalf of the City of Barrie, no matter who they are no matter what service they are delivering, are held to the same degree of transparency and accountability that the City of Barrie prides itself in," Mayor Alex Nuttall said to CTV News ahead of Wednesday's meeting.

City councillors have limited power to make changes to the service partner budgets. However, they attempted to send a strong message of fiscal responsibility by approving the city operations portion of the 2024 budget with a zero per cent increase.

"It isn't lost on me that every family is finding it hard to make ends meet today, and we need to do everything we can to diminish that affordability gap that exists between what people earn and what it costs, so every day we're looking for savings," Nuttall said.

Most of Wednesday's meeting was spent on amendments to the library's budget. This year, the library board budgeted $78,387 for a community navigator. Citing rising safety concerns at its downtown branch, the library wants to work with other community partners to bring on someone with experience in the social workspace to support some of the City's most vulnerable members.

When presenting last week, councillors raised some concerns over the funding request, especially since this year's budget included a $100,000 cut to its budget for new materials. Library staff were directed by council to consult with the county on any possible funding possibilities for the position, as it is responsible for providing social services to the City.

Late last week, the library CEO, Lauren Jessop, met with County officials, who directed her to a federal grant that could fund the position.

Wednesday, Councillor Gary Harvey brought forth a motion to put the $78,387 back into the City's coffers, assuming the library will successfully apply its funding. After much debate, the mayor said he was frustrated that this was resolved so quickly after coming to council last week, saying he had privately directed library staff to consult with the county late last year.

"In 48 hours after being requested in public, it was funded," Nuttall said during Wednesday's council meeting. "That's a management issue, folks. That is a management issue. That tells me that City of Barrie is the easy streak to get money, and I just don't think it's acceptable."

Ward 4 Councillor Amy Courser, who sits on the library board through her position on council, responded to the mayor, saying the library did reach out to the county when directed to by the mayor last year. Still, no formal offer of any funding opportunities was provided.

Austin Mitchell, who serves on the board, confirmed Councillor Courser's account, saying they consulted with the County a couple of times in the fall and that the board "has full confidence in library management and provides regular oversight."

Ward 10 Councillor Bryn Hamilton also brought forth numerous amendments on Wednesday. Councillors voted in favor of them requesting that the police, library, and County all bring forth key performance indicators later this year, with a review to follow in the fall.

"This isn't about micromanaging, this isn't about misalignment in performance goals, it really is giving them authority to determine what is meaningful to them against their strategic plan and if there's no commonalties between what they are doing and what the city is doing, that's an issue," Hamilton said when explaining her amendments. "We're spending millions of dollars, and if they aren't supporting our cause and we're not supporting theirs, there is a misalignment there that we need to actually explore."

When council was adjourned on Wednesday, the service partner budgets had received initial approval with an estimated 2.83 per cent impact on the tax levy. That will be passed on to taxpayers, along with a two percent increase for infrastructure investments. City operations costs were frozen at zero per cent for another year.

Further amendments can be brought forth to when councillors sit for their next city council meeting on Wed. Jan. 31. Final approval is expected to come next week.