Simcoe County's nearly $1B budget focuses on housing, seniors and transit

Simcoe County council has approved its largest budget to date at nearly one-billion-dollars, and it could have been even higher.

Councillors voted to scale back a possible four per cent tax levy increase to 3.625 per cent earlier this month. For homeowners, that translates into an additional $10.86 per $100,000 property assessment.

Housing and long-term care are key components to the $962 million budget.

“As we head into 2025, we look forward to opening more affordable housing units, creating new spaces for those living unhoused,” said Warden Basil Clarke, adding there will also be a focus on support for seniors in need of care and services.

The County’s budget for next year includes projects like continued work on the Simcoe Village Campus long-term care redevelopment in Beeton, and social housing like the Rose Street project in Barrie.

There are also plans to expand transit with a new LINX route to serve south Simcoe and add a new paramedic station in Waubaushene.

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"We found areas where we could compromise to reduce the impact to the taxpayer," Clarke noted.

“We are not going to be cutting service levels,” noted Trevor Wilcox, the County’s corporate performance general manager.

Rather, council found other avenues to cut, including opting to only hire two new full-time emergency management positions and to revisit hiring two more for the 2026 budget.

Savings were also found in areas like solid waste management.

A higher tax levy would have quickly unlocked more capital spending, but councillors expressed concerns about rising costs in their municipal budgets, especially with provincial policing costs skyrocketing.

The warden said the increase in OPP costs averages around 20 per cent for local municipalities.

There was further discussion about potentially finding savings by cutting from the County’s reserves, but ultimately, council chose to leave the reserves untouched.