Barrie's Booming!

Barrie has been one of the fastest growing cities in Canada for decades and the City has prioritized and welcomed growth and development. Barrie is receiving over $31.9 million in funding to help get more homes, built faster.

On March 14, 2024, the Government of Canada and the City of Barrie announced that they reached an agreement to fast track more than 680 housing units over the next three years. This work will help spur the construction of 4,100 homes over the next decade. The agreement under the Housing Accelerator Fund will provide over $25.6 million. 

On March 15, 2024, the Government of Ontario announced it will be providing the City with $6,344,201 million in funding through the Building Faster Fund for exceeding 2023 provincial housing targets. The fund rewards municipalities that make significant progress against their targets by providing funding for housing-enabling and community-enabling infrastructure. 

“What’s going on in the city is really exciting. The numbers that Barrie’s been posting when it comes to home building is outperforming most cities in Ontario and the future looks very bright with city owned lands, with vacant lands, properties that are vacant, land actually has service already in and around the boundary of the town that have an opportunity for future development as well.” – Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure, Communities | March 2024

“Last week 4,000 new units were approved in the city of Barrie and sent to the provincial government. This week, $25 million is being put in our gas tank to make sure the projects around the city can move forward, whether they’re one unit or many, many more units.”

“You are always welcome here Mr. Premier—but certainly whenever you are bringing $6.3 million you are really really welcome”

“The work that’s been done by the City of Barrie for 30 years to position us for today to be able to have the capacity to build housing, to be able to have the capacity to support job growth in this region. We have a great place for the private sector to invest and we are going to work every single day with our partners, whether it’s the Province of Ontario or the municipalities around us to get it done.”

– Mayor Alex Nuttall | March 2024

“I’m so pleased to say that Mayor, Council, you have hit your target—actually you have exceeded your target with over 1,716 homes, which is just absolutely amazing.”

“We need more industrial lands. That creates more opportunities for the whole region, not just for Barrie, for surrounding areas—be it Springwater or other areas that surround it. It’s all about working together. Forget about this invisible border that happens. They have the capacity, the infrastructure here in Barrie—whether it’s water, wastewater, where the other ones don’t—and they can benefit.”

– Premier Doug Ford | March 2024

New Regional Innovation Centre

As outlined in 2024 Ontario Budget: Building a Better Ontario, the Ontario government is supporting the creation of a Regional Innovation Centre (RIC) in Barrie with an additional $1 million funding per year. This investment will accelerate the growth and success of early-stage and rapid growth companies by providing critical access to programming, expertise, innovation and commercialization tools in the City of Barrie. 

A investment in a local RIC for Barrie will elevate the ecosystem of support for business and entrepreneurs to meet the capacity needs of this fast-growing city and surrounding area, fueling the attraction of business investment and skilled talent to the area.

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