City of barrie: 1)Barrie clinician says downtown loitering, drug use could deter recovering addicts from treatment; 2)Barrie pushes ahead with $2.1M replanting plan after devastating ice storm; 3)City of Barrie chooses remote-control mowers over ending slope maintenance; 4)Barrie eyeing new tennis dome for future south-end recreation hub

1)Barrie clinician says downtown loitering, drug use could deter recovering addicts from treatment

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Julius Hern, June 18, 2026

Patients may be avoiding addiction treatment in downtown Barrie due to open drug use and loitering outside a methadone clinic, a local physician told the Barrie Police Service Board Thursday.

Dr. Josh Fletcher, founder and medical director of Arrow Medical, said in a deputation that groups regularly congregate outside the clinic’s location, creating concerns for patients and staff, and discouraging some people from accessing treatment for opioid use disorder.

His clinic is one of three such methadone clinics in the area of Dunlop Street West and Toronto Street, with the other two either being set back on private property or on the second storey of a building.

Arrow Medical is found within a Pharmasave location at street level.

“At least 50 per cent of these individuals (loitering) are not patients of our clinic, and I have absolutely no idea who they are,” Fletcher told board members.

His appearance before the board comes after a conversation he says he had with Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall last week, who recommended he bring his issues to the board, which had discussed the service’s downtown enforcement initiative in its May meeting.

Fletcher says he and his staff are constantly getting referrals from the County of Simcoe’s HART Hub program with the vast majority of patients the clinic sees being unhoused while struggling with fentanyl abuse.

It has already hired private security, which has been helpful, but ultimately displaces individuals to nearby areas. Other times, when police get involved, the loiterers move for half an hour or so before returning.

“I have taken steps [toward] banning individuals, and I do that frequently and feel like we need to,” Fletcher said. “I would imagine the pharmacy does the same thing.”

Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall questioned if there’s specific legislation that guarantees access to medical services and protects entrances to medical services, especially coming off of public property.

“We’re struggling with what the law allows us to do and doesn’t allow us to do,” he said. “I’ve never thought of this from a medical practice perspective and access to such services.”

Barrie Police Chief Rich Johnston said the situation downtown is complex, noting officers must balance public safety concerns with the need to ensure vulnerable people continue accessing medical treatment.

He said police presence can unintentionally discourage individuals from attending clinics, while also noting there are legal and operational limits to how police can intervene in public spaces.

“Our officers would not drive past an intoxicated person because there is a legal, ethical, and moral obligation to the well-being of that individual,” Johnston explained. “There is no law that forces or allows us to interact with an individual in what I’ve heard referred to as the fentanyl fold.”

Both Nuttall and Johnston noted that follow-up discussions are expected between the city, police and Arrow Medical.

Some board members pushed back on Fletcher’s deputation, suggesting that prescribed treatments from the clinic could actually be adding to the problem and could explain why many addicts find themselves in a “zombified” state when they use drugs on the street.

Fletcher disagreed with that characterization.

“It is not a byproduct of our medication, but it’s a byproduct of the actual drug supply,” he said. “If anyone on the service here has had to administer [naloxone] to someone and they’re not seeing any sort of improvement in their state, that’s because of this actual tranquilizer that’s in the drug supply, which is making things worse. And that’s new within the last three months.”

The tranquilizer he mentioned is called medetomidine, which he says has likely found its way to Barrie by way of Toronto’s street drug supply. Medetomidine is a surgical sedative not approved for use on humans, and isn’t an opioid, meaning it cannot be reversed by naloxone.

The discussion also touched on whether the clinic’s location and downtown presence is contributing to the concentration of activity outside the building.

Arrow Medical does have a secondary location in the Allandale area, but Fletcher says its important to have a centrally-located presence near places like the Busby Centre and the Salvation so those in need are close enough to access services from the clinic.

“With regards to actually moving the location, I’m open to wherever we need to be to be able to offer these services,” Fletcher said “Our population is so transient and so unwell that it’s so much about capturing an individual in that moment when they’re ready to make that change and trying to be there as much as possible where that individual is.”

Nonetheless, people trying to access a path towards sobriety and addictions recovery run the risk of falling off the wagon if they’re triggered by other users.

Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson said the number of people accessing treatment could decline if public disorder around service locations discourages vulnerable individuals from engaging in care, even during recovery stages.

“If all the services are in one area… if your 50 per cent are getting help and 50 per cent are not seeking help, these two clash,” he said.

Other statistics from a 2025 community survey presented during the board meeting said that of 1,130 respondents between October 16 to December 15, 72 per cent say they feel very uncomfortable or uncomfortable downtown, day or night.

For outside of the downtown area, that response number plummets to 28 per cent.

2)Barrie pushes ahead with $2.1M replanting plan after devastating ice storm

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Ian MacLennan, June 17, 2026

The City of Barrie says work is well underway to restore thousands of trees lost during last year’s devastating ice storm.

The storm damaged about 46,000 municipal trees and destroyed more than 5,000 street and park trees across the city.

“When last year’s ice storm damaged thousands of trees across Barrie, we made a commitment to restore what was lost. Today, that work is well underway. With a $2.1 million investment, we’re replanting trees in our parks, neighbourhoods, and natural spaces, with approximately 1,400 already in the ground and thousands more to come,” said Mayor Alex Nuttall. “I want to thank city staff, contractors, and community partners like Living Green Barrie for helping us move this work forward. Together, we’re restoring Barrie’s tree canopy and ensuring future generations can continue to enjoy the beautiful green spaces that make our city such a great place to live.”

Barrie City Council approved a replacement planting program last June, and crews have already planted about 1,400 new trees in parks, natural areas and along street boulevards.

The city planting will continue over the next few weeks before resuming in the fall and again in the spring of 2027 to reach the goal of replacing all 5,000 trees lost in the storm.

3)City of Barrie chooses remote-control mowers over ending slope maintenance

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Julius Hern, June 17, 2026

Barrie councillors want city workers to keep cutting grass on steep slopes at municipal facilities, approving plans to purchase remote-controlled mowing equipment after staff recommended ending the practice over safety concerns.

A staff memorandum deferred from May 13 recommended ending mowing operations on hazardous grades because of what’s been described as significant safety risks and equipment limitations.

The slopes include areas around the surface water treatment plant, emergency services campus, and other city-owned facilities.

Just after the city’s corporate facilities department assumed responsibility for in-house lawn maintenance services in April 2024, there was a near-miss incident that occurred during maintenance on sloped terrain, the memo says. That incident then triggered a formal review.

The subsequent review found that multiple city facility properties contain areas originally designed to be naturalized. Also, contractors who previously maintained these areas either used specialized slope equipment or, more likely, operated unsafely beyond equipment design limits, running the risk of their machines rolling over.

Committee members unanimously supported an amendment from Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson authorizing staff to purchase remote-controlled mowing equipment so maintenance can continue safely.

The funds would come from the city’s tax capital reserve and would be equal to or less than $50,000.

“There’s liabilities that have become a little too dangerous and it creates more problems,” he rationalized during the meeting. “But not being able to cut also creates a different line of problems.”

Overall, the aim by staff to cease the slope cutting would aid in cost-saving while reducing risk of costly injury claims or Ontario Health and Safety Board enforcement.

Rick Pews, the city’s director of corporate facilities, says that staff have already looked into what the new teleautonomous equipment would be and that the cost falls under the limit.

According to the memo, staff was interested in purchasing a particular model that was larger and between $80,000 and $100,000 in cost, with annual upkeep costs of $16,000 to $18,500.

“The ones we were looking at before were much larger… we were looking at doing much larger areas [like] stormwater management ponds across the city.” Pews told the committee. “[With] this one being smaller, we won’t be able to do things as often, but certainly a few times a summer, I think, is gonna be a lot better than not doing them at all, and we can pick and choose what we do and when we do it.”

The desired mower is around just under 160 kilograms, and would need to be transported in trailers that currently carry the city’s zero-turn lawn mowers.

Thomson says that the hope is that city employees will get used using the remote-control equipment on the 50-degree slope at the surface water treatment facility before trying it around retention ponds and other areas.

Coun. Bryn Hamilton, who represents Ward 10 where the treatment facility is located, says servicing the surrounding grassy areas is important to the nearby neighbourhood.

“I’ve heard from a number of residents who back on to the water treatment facility specifically in this area has been maintained for the past couple of years,” she said. “So we’ve set that level of service expectation already, and it’s actually a beautiful area when it’s well maintained. It hasn’t been maintained over the past couple of weeks, months.”

Later in the evening, city council formally received the memorandum along with Thomson’s amendment.

4)Barrie eyeing new tennis dome for future south-end recreation hub

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Julius Hern, June 13, 2026

The City of Barrie will explore the potential for an indoor tennis dome as part of its long-term recreation planning, with council directing staff to assess whether the facility could be incorporated into a future south-end recreation complex.

The direction came during Wednesday’s infrastructure and community investment committee meeting, where councillors debated whether a tennis dome should be considered alongside other potential covered sports facilities, including soccer and multi-use field infrastructure.

A staff memo circulated Wednesday outlined early-stage work with MatchPoint Tennis Club and Tennis Canada’s Rogers Year-round Community Tennis Facility Program, which offers funding for new indoor or seasonal tennis facilities across Canada.

The city previously provided a letter of support for the concept, allowing the club to pursue external grant funding. However, staff analysis indicates the grant—capped at $200,000 per project—would cover only a fraction of the estimated costs, which could reach several million dollars depending on site conditions and infrastructure needs.

During discussions with MatchPoint regarding potential city locations for a seasonal tennis dome, staff identified Eastview Park and Queen’s Park as the only city-owned locations that meet the grant’s minimum requirement of four tennis courts. The club said Eastview Park was its preferred site, but was interested in exploring Queen’s Park as an alternative, according to the staff memo.

The debate centred on whether a tennis dome should be considered as part of broader recreation planning, particularly as the city advances work on a new multi-sport complex in Barrie’s south end.

Mayor Alex Nuttall proposed an amendment directing staff to consider the placement of a new dome at the site of the complex.

“If we don’t plan forward, it’s never going to happen,” Nuttall said during Wednesday’s meeting.

“I’m probably giving up on the idea that we can retrofit one of our existing parks right now to put a dome over it.”

He argued the proposed south-end recreation complex could provide a logical home for future indoor tennis facilities alongside other planned amenities.

Coun. Claire Riepma said he doesn’t think Eastview Park or Queen’s Park are suitable “financially or from a community perspective,” agreeing that the city should examine whether the new south-end facility could accommodate a dome.

Some councillors pointed to growing demand for indoor sports space across Barrie, including long waitlists for winter tennis and pressure on existing soccer infrastructure. Others raised concerns about ensuring equal consideration for multiple sports before committing to costly, sport-specific facilities.

Barrie already has one sports dome in the city’s north end, which is primarily used for soccer among other recreational activities.

Nuttall also told committee he has been in discussions with Barrie Soccer Club about a separate soccer dome proposal in Springwater, noting that demand for indoor field space extends beyond tennis.

Barrie residents currently rely on indoor tennis facilities outside the city, including a dome located in Springwater, owned by the township.

“The reality is that this doesn’t exist inside of the city of Barrie,” he said. “The waitlist out there, the last I heard was over 200 individuals, and we are now in a position where it’s like, ‘OK, what do we do going forward?'”

Nuttall noted a proposal to install a dome over existing tennis courts using federal funding was rejected by council roughly 17 years ago.

City staff confirmed that a broader stakeholder engagement process for the south-end recreation site has not yet been completed, and that a project team is still being formed to guide future design decisions.

“From that period forward, the ball should start rolling a little bit more quickly,” Kevin Datema, the city’s director of recreation and culture services, told committee members. “We haven’t engaged in that yet, but it’s likely closer to the end of the calendar year.”

While council ultimately supported further exploration of a tennis dome concept, members emphasized the importance of comparing it against other potential facility options, including soccer domes and multi-use fields, as part of a wider needs assessment.

Committee chair Coun. Bryn Hamilton said the city must ensure any future facility is planned with long-term growth in mind.

“We’ve got one shot to do this right,” she said. “I want to make sure we’re doing all the necessary steps to make sure [if] we build there, we’re planning for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years because that’s what this recreation centre and fields are going to have to serve.”

Committee members unanimously approved the recommendation and Nuttall’s amendment.

No decision has been made on whether a tennis dome will be built. Staff are expected to examine costs, feasibility and potential locations before reporting back to council, likely during the next term.