The sign that has created much controversy and division on city council is being erected in time for Canada Day.
The Heart Barrie sign is being installed at the entrance to Heritage Park, where people come across Simcoe Street from Meridian Place.
The sign has been a hot topic since being being approved by council in June 2021 with a $200,000 price tag.
Pushed by Ward 10 Coun. Mike McCann, who called it his “passion project,” the sign will have a 10-foot-tall heart people will be able to stand in and pose for photos.
While McCann has raised the money for the sign through donations and not with city money, there has been some controversy as to how much the councillor has raised, with a recently revealed amount being $375,000 donated for the project.
During the announcements portion of a June 6 city council meeting, McCann said he did not raise $375,000 and it was closer to $300,000, with some of the donations being in-kind.
Council has also added $15,000 to the city’s operations department budget, beginning this year, to cover costs of potential graffiti removal and winter maintenance on and around the sign.
Ward 2 Coun. Keenan Aylwin has been the most vocal opponent of the project and said during a March 22 council meeting he heard from constituents “that it’s not something they’d like to see in Heritage Park and I don’t think the funds associated with maintenance are worth the sign.”
On June 28, 2021, city council passed a motion stating any funds raised on top of the $200,000 for the Heart Barrie sign, where no donation receipts had been issued, be donated to save the beaver and save the turtle programs in the city.
But when asked in early June, McCann could not tell BarrieToday how much of the donated money would go toward saving beavers and turtles, or how much money was left over, after the sign was financed, that was not going to turtles and beavers. He did not address those questions Monday night.
At the June 6 council meeting, McCann attempted to explain the accounting of money.
“I also collected HST (harmonized sales tax), which I collected and sent to the federal government,” he said. “I have hired a professional accounting firm that has been preparing a spreadsheet — monies in, monies out — and I’ll be sharing this with the city’s finance department once all my money is collected.
“I will finish collecting outstanding sponsorships and send a detailed summary to finance and, lastly, I firmly believe in full transparency.”
In a June 1 BarrieToday story, McCann said he sought and received advice from City of Barrie director of finance Craig Millar on “how we should go from A to B — A being the sponsors, B being the City of Barrie.”
McCann said he followed that advice.
Millar, responding to BarrieToday showing him that quote, denied giving “any advice to Coun. McCann on how he proceeds with his donation collection or sponsorship methods.”
