The City drives change in the way it delivers services and is constantly looking at ways to make tax dollars go further. The City continually works to find efficiencies and build innovation into the way it does business. All City departments conduct line-by-line reviews of their budgets each year and have embraced a culture of innovation to find savings wherever possible.
Did you know? Ontario municipalities receive only 9 cents of every tax dollar raised in Ontario, while the Provincial and Federal governments receive 44 cents and 47 cents respectively. In contrast to this, municipalities own 57% of the capital infrastructure, while the Provincial Government owns 41% of Infrastructure and the Federal Government only 2%.
Barrie taxes are very comparable to other municipalities. In fact, they are in the lower end of other major southern Ontario cities. In 2024, S&P Global revised the City of Barrie's outlook to positive and affirmed its ‘AA+’ credit rating.
Highlighted Projects & Initiatives
The below projects and initiatives highlight the top five cost-saving/revenue-increasing measures and the top five time-saving measures from across the City in 2024. In instances where staff time is saved, this time is 100% reinvested, giving staff more time to complete other work. The below improvements are included in the 2025 Operating Budget Efficiencies document.
Top Five in Money Saved/Increased
Top Five in Time Saved
The top initiatives from 2024 are highlighted above, but there are many more! All efforts to save time/money and improve processes help the City operate more efficiently.