Barrie's 2025 budget could depend on citizens' survey results

Barrie City Hall. (CTV News/Mike Arsalides)

Budget time for Barrie city councillors means it's survey time for its residents. 

The online 2025 budget surveys ask residents to provide feedback on significant services included in the city's annual operating budget and the service partner budgets.

Respondents can choose to increase, decrease or maintain spending for each area and learn about the service impacts associated with each choice.

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"Each year, as part of the budget process, city council makes tough decisions about how it will pay for the programs, services and infrastructure our community relies on every day," said Mayor Alex Nuttall. "We continue to face many economic challenges beyond our control, but council will always work hard to focus on the essentials and deliver a budget that meets the needs of the people of Barrie. I encourage residents to take the budget surveys to provide feedback on their priorities ahead of city council's 2025 budget discussions." 

Feedback received through the surveys by October 21 will be given to city councillors during the 2025 Business Plan and Budget deliberations. The budget surveys use approximate figures from major service areas in the city's budget. They do not represent the entire Barrie budget.

In addition to the online surveys, the city of Barrie is working with Oraclepoll Research to conduct a statistically valid phone survey of residents to gather feedback on key questions related to the 2025 Business Plan & Budget.

Starting Monday, residents may receive a call and are encouraged to take the time to provide feedback. Results will be shared with council as part of the 2025 Business Plan & Budget deliberations. All individual responses will be kept confidential, and respondents won't be asked to give any personal information.

The city services portion of the 2025 Business Plan & Budget is scheduled to be approved on December 11. Service Partner 2025 budgets are expected to be approved in February 2025.

Barrie property owners interested in seeing how their 2024 tax dollars were used to fund city and partner services, can use the city's Property Tax Calculator to view a personalized estimate.