City of Barrie Ward Boundary Review: Public Feedback Survey - Phase 2

The City of Barrie is undertaking a comprehensive review of the City's ward boundaries. A ward is a geographical division of a city or town for administrative or political purposes. A ward boundary review is a task conducted on behalf of a municipality to assess whether the present electoral structure and wards constitute an effective, equitable and democratic system of representation and, if not, to propose alternatives.

The overall objective of this review is to establish fair and equitable representation of the residents at Barrie Council. The City is growing, and settlement patterns are changing. Have things changed enough within Barrie that the electoral structure and corresponding wards need to be adjusted?

Barrie is committed to involving residents, businesses and stakeholders in conversations about municipal decisions that interest and/or impact them, including this Ward Boundary Review.

This survey is important because it will help the consultants to understand how the citizens of Barrie view the current electoral arrangement. Your wisdom and insight will enable the consulting team to provide thoughtful recommendations to your Council.

The survey will be available until May 23, 2025 at 11:59PM. Please share it with friends, family, and neighbours.

To help you prepare to answer this survey and understand the changes being discussed, there are informative and interactive maps and other materials that can be found on the project webpage.

What is your postal code?

* required

Maximum 255 characters

0/255

What best describes you?

* required

I live in Barrie

I work in Barrie

I live and work in Barrie

None of the above

How long have you lived in Barrie?

* required

0-5 Years

6-10 Years

10-19 Years

20+ Years

I do not live in Barrie

Which ward do you live in (see map below or on the interactive map)?

* required

Ward 1

Ward 2

Ward 3

Ward 4

Ward 5

Ward 6

Ward 7

Ward 8

Ward 9

Ward 10

I don't know

Not applicable

Which Barrie Community do you live, work or own property in? (i.e. Allandale, Downtown, etc.)

Maximum 255 characters

0/255

Current Council Composition and Ward Boundaries

Barrie is currently governed by an 11-member Council, composed of:

• one mayor, who acts as head of council;
• ten local councilors, who are elected from each of the ten wards.

One guiding principle for this review is “representation by population," so we compared how many people currently live in each ward and identified which wards were smaller or larger than the average population.

The external consultant team conducting this review on behalf of the City discovered that in 2025 the average ward population within Barrie was about 16,700. Then we asked ourselves, “How much difference in population is acceptable?” In this analysis we suggest that a 5 percent from the average (plus or minus) is optimal or ideal. Up to ±25 percent variation is still within the range of reasonably acceptable. A variation of more than ±25 percent is usually an indicator of imbalance that needs to be addressed.

The following table outlines the current ward system and the population size variation.

• "O" represents ward populations that are plus or minus 5% away from the optimal (average) ward population;
• "O+/O-" represents ward populations that are above/below the 5% variance but within the 25% acceptable range;
• "OR+/OR-" represents ward populations that are above/below the 25% optimal population variance.

Please indicate the ONE guiding principle that you believe should be given the greatest priority to ensure effective voter representation as we assess the current ward makeup in Barrie:

* required

Representation by Population: Balancing future population changes to maintain equilibrium in representation until the next ward boundary review.

Using geographical features, road patterns, railways, transit routes, and service districts as natural ward boundaries to foster and identify neighborhood groupings.

Recognizing settlement patterns, traditional neighborhoods, school districts, and community groupings (social, historical, economic, religious, political) while avoiding fragmentation of the City.

Preliminary Options

The Consultant Team prepared five different preliminary options, outlined in thePreliminary Options Report. From these five preliminary options, council decided to present preliminary options (Preliminary Option 1 and Preliminary Option 2B) during this phase of public engagement. You can review all five preliminary options in Preliminary Options Report.

Please review the following two preliminary options put forward by council. A population table outlining the population per ward, the average ward population and how far from the average each ward is (variance) has been provided for both 2025 and 2036. In addition, each option the Consultant Team has provided their evaluation and some notes about the guiding principles.

These options can be viewed on the interactive map

The degree to which each guiding principle is satisfied is ranked as “Yes” (fully satisfied), “Largely Successful,” “Partially Successful,” or “No” (not satisfied).

Which of the preliminary options do you prefer?

* required

Preliminary Option 1

Preliminary Option 2-B

No preference

Why do you prefer that preliminary option?

* required

The Preliminary Options Reportcontained five Preliminary Options. Do you like one of Council's preferred final options for consideration or were there options in the preliminary options report that you liked better?

* required

I prefer one of two Council's preferred final options

I prefer an alternative option from within the Preliminary Options Report

10.

Please explain your answer to question 9 (if applicable):

11.

Is there anything else you want the consultants to know so they can recommend ward configurations that truly reflect the interests of the residents of the City of Barrie?

Thank you for your participation in this phase of the Ward Boundary Review. For more information please visit the project webpage