Where Your Money Goes

Every day your tax dollars provide programs and servic​es to improve the quality of life for you and your family. In a typical day residents will use or witness most City services being provided, such as water, curbside collection, roads, traffic signals and street lights, libraries, parks, police, fire & snow removal, just to name a few.

Here are some of the major services residents rely on, the total annual amount paid per home* in 2024 for each, and highlights of the provided services.

City Services

* Dollar figures are based on the 2024 Budget & typical Barrie home assessed at $368,000.
Service & AmountWhat You Get
Fire & Emergency Service: $424
  • ​24/7 availability
  • Response to over 10,000 calls for service while achieving a travel time under 6 minutes approximately 90% of the time (2023)
  • Emergency communications service for over 35,000 incidents across 21 municipalities serving a population of almost 900,000 (2023)
Roads & Traffic Operations: $305
Transit: $233
  • 3.5 million conventional and 35,000 specialized transit trips annually
  • 175,000 transit vehicle in-service hours with 30-minute frequencies during peak periods
Recreation & Culture: $156
Economic & Creative Development: $33
  • Services include business retention and expansion activities, attracting new businesses, site selection services, talent attraction and retention, tourism development, growing industrial clusters
  • Deploying provincially funded programs aimed at starting and growing small businesses and strengthening the arts & culture sector
Parks & Forestry: $115
  • Care of 35,000 City-owned street trees and 994 hectares of natural areas
  • Inspection & maintenance of 150 km+ of trails
  • Inspection & maintenance of all equipment and play areas at 132 parks
  • Maintenance of parkland, including sports fields​dog off-leash areasdisc golf, and passive use areas
  • Maintenance of horticulture displays located in the City’s parks, Arboretum and downtown
Solid Waste Operations: $160
Development Services: $12

Service Partners

Service Partners, including Barrie Police Service, County of Simcoe and the Barrie Public Library, make up approximately 32% of the City of Barrie's annual budget. City Council has limited control over service partner spending requests, as these partners do not report directly to City Council, but rather Council has representation on the governance bodies they report to.

* Dollar figures are based on the 2024 Budget & typical Barrie home assessed at $368,000.
Service & AmountWhat You Get
Barrie Police: $956
  • Provides 24/7 emergency response across Barrie
  • Specialty units address complex investigations such as crimes against persons, human trafficking, tech crimes, homicide, and fraud
  • Additional areas of importance include courthouse security, crime prevention, traffic services, and community safety and well-being initiatives
  • Civilian members are integral in units such as finance, records and information management services, human resources, and I.T., and work alongside sworn members to help deliver services to the community
County of Simcoe: $432
  • Provides land ambulance and social services including long term care and seniors services, Ontario Works, children’s services, community services (including poverty reduction programs), and social housing
Libraries: $127
  • The Barrie Public Library’s (BPL) three locations (Downtown, Painswick, Holly), offer a wide range of services including 100+ programs each month for all ages
  • Residents can access the digital library 24/7 for eBooks, eAudiobooks, movies, learning tools and more!
  • In 2023, outreach expanded with the BPL on the GO van and e-trike delivering essential services across the city