Barrie's housing starts above and beyond provincial targets

Housing construction in this undated file image.

Barrie is doing its part to get more homes built faster.

The city of Barrie is well on its way to reaching the provincial target of 23,000 housing units by 2031.

From January 1, 2023, until the end of December, the city had 1,809 housing starts, exceeding the annual provincial target of 1,687.

A Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) study has named Barrie the top municipality in Ontario for ease of doing business with the city for government approvals and processes.

Today, city staff are launching a web page to track Barrie's progress in meeting building and planning targets publicly.

"Barrie has prioritized and welcomed growth and development," said Mayor Nuttall. "We have invested in a robust infrastructure plan to support growth and the building of additional homes to help the province achieve their housing targets.

"In order to be fully transparent, we are now making our building progress public on our website," Nuttall said.

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Last February, Barrie pledged to the minister of municipal affairs and housing to facilitate the construction of 23,000 housing units by 2031.

By the end of 2023, Barrie had issued planning approvals for 14,641 housing units.