What Barrie pays the County of Simcoe

Why does the County run services in a city that is not part of it?

Because the Province draws the service area that way. Barrie left the County in 1959 and is a single-tier city, but for each of these services provincial law names the County of Simcoe as the manager for an area that includes Barrie and Orillia, and requires the two cities to pay a share:

• Paramedics. Under the Ambulance Act, costs "shall be apportioned among the municipalities" and paid to the County.
• Social housing and homelessness. Under the Housing Services Act, 2011, Barrie "shall pay the apportioned amount".
• Ontario Works (now called Community Support and Wellbeing). Under the Ontario Works Act, 1997, Barrie pays on demand. Since 2025 the Province itself is the delivery agent, with the County as its delivery partner.
• Child care. The County is Barrie's child care manager under the same provincial list as housing (see child care).
• Long-term care. Every southern city must run a long-term care home or help pay for one. Barrie runs no home of its own and pays toward the County's homes, under an agreement that needs the Minister's written approval.

If Barrie and the County cannot agree, the housing, child care and Ontario Works rules send the split to arbitration. Long-term care has no such backstop, which is why it is the one service Barrie could, in principle, walk away from.

How is the bill split between Barrie, Orillia and the County?

Each service has a municipal cost, what is left after provincial and federal funding. The agreement splits that cost by one of three keys:

• Property assessment (weighted taxable assessment) for paramedics, housing and homelessness, community housing and most of child care. Barrie's share of the assessment is 25.0%.
• Caseload for Ontario Works: Barrie has 40.7% of the cases.
• A blend for long-term care: 65% by how many residents come from each place, 35% by assessment.

So Barrie makes about a third of the paramedic calls but pays about a quarter of the paramedic cost, because paramedics are split by assessment. In 2026 Barrie's share of the paramedic operating cost is 25.06% (this site's arithmetic from the County's budget). On long-term care it is the other way round: Barrie pays 12.03% of the cost, and the County's figures put Barrie residents at 4.3% of the care. An audit Barrie commissioned in 2024 found Barrie a "net recipient" for paramedics, community services and social housing, and not for long-term care and children's services.

Overhead changed in 2026. The old agreement charged a share of each County head-office department, which is how Barrie paid $139,000 toward County councillors' pay in 2021. The new one adds a flat 2% or 6% of each service's operating cost.

How much has Barrie paid the County since 2011?

Before 2016 the line was flat or falling: $21.7 million$21,719,382 approved in 2011 and $21 million$20,994,427 in 2015, as the Province took over Ontario Works benefit costs (Barrie's Ontario Works line fell from $8,269,000 in 2011 to $2,763,000 by 2018). Those years were counted on different bases, gross lines through 2013 and operating plus capital in 2014 and 2015, so they are not on the chart. Since 2016 the line has grown every year but one: from $19.9 million$19,889,478 to $32.9 million$32,869,129 approved in 2025, 65.26% more (this site's arithmetic, before inflation). Paramedics grew fastest.

What is the County capital reserve, and why did it drop in 2026?

Barrie pays its share of County buildings, such as paramedic stations, long-term care homes and housing, from a City reserve that it fills from the tax levy each year. Under the old agreement the County charged the cost of a major building back over 10 years with interest, so the bills arrived much faster than the buildings wear out. By 2024 the City's own projections had the reserve overcommitted by about $27.8 million by 2028, and the City said contributions should rise to at least $14 million a year.

Then the 2026 budget cut the contribution by $4,256,000, to $2,494,000. The new agreement charges County buildings as depreciation over each asset's life, which the City says means the reserve "would no longer result in a deficit position". In the same budget the County's operating request rose by $6.5 million, including a $2.3 million asset-management charge, so the County's net effect on Barrie's 2026 tax rate was 0.65%. That cut is part of why the County piece of the 2026 tax increase was small (see property taxes).

The buildings themselves: Barrie's 2026 share of County capital includes $12,069,000 toward affordable housing in Barrie (20 Rose Street, 221 units, estimated at $217 million in all) and $7,793,000 toward the Simcoe Manor long-term care redevelopment, plus two planned paramedic posts in Barrie. The County prints Barrie's 2026 capital total two ways, $24,070,000 in its capital plan and $22,040,000 in its partner tables; the difference is the asset-management items the second table moves to a column of their own.

What did the June 2026 agreements change?

Barrie council approved three agreements on June 17, 2026, the County on June 23 and Orillia on June 29. They run from January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2029:

• Buildings: charged as depreciation over each asset's life, with interest on County borrowing in the operating cost, instead of a 10-year payback. Barrie may pay off what it owes early.
• Overhead: a flat 2% or 6%, instead of a share of each County department.
• Long-term care: a separate agreement, which Barrie asked for so it would have "flexibility should the City choose to withdraw". City staff are to report in 2028 on Barrie running long-term care itself.
• Seats: Barrie's members on the County committee fall from four to two.
• Unchanged: monthly bills on actual costs, a year-end true-up due by March 31 (any shortage billed, any overage refunded), 15% a year on late payments, and disputes going from the parties to a staff committee, mediation and then arbitration.

On those figures the new terms cost Barrie $6.78 million less in 2026. The saving is real in the sense that buildings are now paid for more slowly; the cost does not disappear, it moves into the 2030s and carries interest.

Is 2026 running over budget?

Across these six services the County forecasts Barrie's share at $31.9 million$31,890,000 against a budget of $28.8 million$28,811,000, about $3.1 million$3,079,000 over (this site's arithmetic). Paramedics account for most of it: the County cites "elevated short-term sick leave and higher vehicle repair and maintenance costs, largely attributable to delays in the delivery of new ambulances". Under the agreement any shortage is billed after the year ends and is due by March 31; the County says the effect "will be determined at year end". It happened in 2024 too: in January 2025 the County forecast Barrie's 2024 operating share at $28 million against $26.1 million budgeted, $1 million of it paramedic overtime, and the City's 2024 actual payment to the County came in at $31.8 million$31,750,907, above the $30.5 million$30,548,855 it had approved.

How fast do paramedics reach Barrie?

Barrie gets faster responses than the region as a whole, as a dense city would: nine in ten Barrie calls are reached within about 9 to 10.4 minutes, against 12.2 to 14.3 minutes across the whole area. The slow part is often at the hospital: in 2024 Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre took 50 minutes at the 90th percentile to take patients over from paramedics, against a 30-minute target, the worst of the seven hospitals in the County's report. The County plans three more paramedic posts in Barrie. More on ambulances and the hospital is on the fire and emergency page.

Who speaks for Barrie at the County?

Barrie has no seat on Simcoe County Council, which makes the final decisions. Barrie councillors sit on the County's Committee of the Whole, and vote there only on the services Barrie pays for: four for housing, child care, Ontario Works and paramedics, one for long-term care and one for the museum. The committee recommends; County Council decides. Barrie's members now are Mayor Alex Nuttall and Councillors Bryn Hamilton, Nigussie Nigussie and Clare Riepma. Under a mediated settlement approved in 2021, the County credits Barrie $24,000 a year for their work.

The two sides describe this differently. In 2021 Barrie's then deputy mayor, Barry Ward, said Barrie has "no representation when the matter comes up before Simcoe County council for approval"; a County general manager replied that he had "never seen council overturn a decision of the committee of the whole regarding the shared services".

From the council elected on October 26, 2026, Barrie's seats fall to two, and Orillia's to one, after the Province cut County Council to 17 members. The new council chooses who fills them.

What have Barrie and the County argued about?

Every year from 2018 to 2026 Barrie council approved the County's request, adjusting it only to match the County's final budget. The argument was about the terms:

• 2019 to 2021: the 2018 agreement went to confidential talks and then mediation; County Council approved the settlement on May 25, 2021.
• November 2020: Mayor Jeff Lehman asked County Council whether Barrie and Orillia were "being overcharged" as Barrie's share rose 7.7%.
• March 2023: Mayor Nuttall called it "a negotiating year". At the County, the Wasaga Beach mayor objected to the other municipalities "subsidizing Barrie" for ambulances. Barrie Councillor Sergio Morales replied that paramedic funding is allocated by population, so "dollars go where the density is"; under the agreement, though, Barrie's paramedic share is set by property assessment.
• January 2024: Barrie ordered a value-for-service audit of the County, up to $50,000, before any renegotiation.
• November 2024: at County budget talks, Nuttall called the 10-year building charge "unfair" and said "It's not off the table to say that the City of Barrie may have to go it alone." The audit, by Deloitte, found the County "compliant" with the agreement and recommended charging buildings over their useful life.
• January 2025: presenting the 2025 budget, Nuttall summed up the audit as finding Barrie got at least its money's worth on 95% of County services, and called the arrangement a challenge: the job is to pay for "the costs that are rightfully the City of Barrie's".
• December 2025: passing the 2026 budget, council directed staff to seek a County long-term care home in Barrie; the mayor said only about 30 of some 500 County beds are used by Barrie residents (his figure, as reported).
• June 2026: the new agreements, with the building charge Barrie asked for and long-term care split out.

What this page could not check

• The City's staff report on the new agreements (ACC-004-2026), the Deloitte audit and its staff report (FIN014-24) sit in the City's meeting system, which this site's tools cannot reach. They would settle the $41.743 million figure and the audit's findings by service: news reports from 2024 and 2026 name different services where Barrie does worse.
• BarrieToday reports that council also gave the County $225,000 for the Hart Hub rent subsidy when it approved the agreements; the council minutes this site holds do not show it.
• The County's 2026 forecast restates its whole partner revenue budget at $41,882,000 against $35,040,000 in its budget book, without saying why.
• Sources disagree on when the old agreement ran out: its text says the end of 2022, one news report says 2023. It kept running either way until the new one.