Barrie's share of county services for 2020 increasing by 10 per cent

Taxpayers county-wide will see a 2 per cent increase; 'Operating expenses are going up by about $10 million, and the levy really addresses a lot of that change'

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Barrie residents may be opening their wallets to the tune of $21 million in 2020 for the use of County of Simcoe services.

The 2020 County of Simcoe draft budget was presented to county council last week, outlining how the county intends to spend its budget next year. The proposed tax increase for taxpayers across the county is 2 per cent, which works out to an increase of $5.58 per $100,000 of MPAC assessment.

Barrie residents do not pay taxes at the county level, as Barrie is a separated city. Instead, the municipality allots a specific amount in their own budget to pay for the use of some county services.

Barrie's contribution to use some county services (Long Term Care and Seniors Services, Paramedic Services, Children and Community Services, Ontario Works, Social Housing Non-Profit, Simcoe County Housing Corporation, the county museum and archives) comes with a price tag of $21 million for 2020, an increase of 10.1 per cent over 2019.

The total county budget for 2020 is $530 million.

When asked why, when the county levy is increasing, the overall budget is decreasing, Trevor Wilcox, general manager of corporate performance with the County of Simcoe, said there are a variety of factors that led to the final numbers.

“Operating expenses are going up by about $10 million, and the levy really addresses a lot of that change,” said Wilcox, adding that last year, the county had major capital project expenditures that took up a big chunk of last year’s budget, including the Barrie Simcoe Emergency Campus.

Provincial cuts also made this year’s budget more of a challenge, he noted.

“The reduction in funding from the provincial government has probably made (this budget) the most challenging,” said Wilcox.

“Part of the challenge was that there was an unknown (provincial funding) earlier in the year,” said Warden George Cornell. “Going forward, we have some concerns with our 2021 budget because we’ve had some indications from the province.

"Our process starts in June, and that was the challenge this year... we weren’t sure until a little late in the game what we were dealing with. I think the province understands that," said Cornell.

Efficiencies found in the budget this time around have come in the form of a reduction of six positions in Ontario Works, two positions in children services as well as flat budgets from the Service Simcoe branch, as well as technological automation of human resources and finance transactions.

“To counter that, we’ve done a number of things in terms of trying to keep our expenses either flat or reducing our expenses,” said Wilcox.

Over the past few years, the county has also taken on in-house fleet repair and maintenance of all their vehicles, whereas previously the county had sent vehicles out for repair.

“We’ve accumulated savings through in-house fleet management... to the tune of about $1 million to $2 million,” said Wilcox.

Some Barrie-specific projects are addressed in the county budget, including continued work on the Barrie Simcoe Emergency Campus. About 15 social housing projects within Barrie are also earmarked to get money for improvements from the county, at a cost of $688,000.

For the separated City of Orillia, their contribution to use county services (Long Term Care and Seniors Services, Paramedic Services, Children and Community Services, Ontario Works, Social Housing Non-Profit and the Simcoe County Housing Corporation) will come with a price tag of $6.5 million for 2020, an increase of 12.7 per cent over 2019.

On Tuesday morning during Committee of the Whole, councillors voted to recommend the draft budget. The budget was referred to the Nov. 26 regular council meeting for adoption.