Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall celebrates first 100 days in office

Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall marked his 100th day in office on Friday and identified the passing of this year's budget as his most successful accomplishment thus far.

The budgeting process involved finding efficiencies to reduce the city operations budget to zero per cent, cancelling the stormwater service tax, and committing to fixing roads with a two per cent investment into the infrastructure renewal fund.

Nuttall set his sights on addressing the issue of prisoner drop-offs in downtown Barrie by working with the provincial government to support those from outside the city.

"We want to be able to help those folks who are not from Barrie get back to the place that they are from, to be able to get the support there and then certainly ensure that there's capacity here for those folks who are from our area to be able to get the help and support they need," he said.

In addition, affordable housing is a top priority of the mayor.

"We have a ton of applications coming in for development right now. There are about 13 to 14,000 units that are approved right now that aren't built here in the city of Barrie," he noted.

Nuttall plans to see the Byrne Drive project begin in May, with a tree replacement plan coming to city council soon.

"When we consider what the big issues are facing our city and why people move here, they love the waterfront, they want a clean city, they love the culture and environment here, but they want a safe place to be able to live," the mayor noted.

Nuttall said he is also focused on establishing a partnership with the school board to open school facilities after hours for youth in under-serviced parts of the city for recreational programs.