Press Release: Barrie Chamber Calls for Provincial Action on Homelessness, Mental Health and Addictions

[BARRIE, ON – August 20, 2026] The Greater Barrie Chamber of Commerce is joining Mayor Alex Nuttall and Ontario’s Big City Mayors in calling for urgent provincial action on homelessness, mental health and addictions through the “Solve the Crisis: Reaction to Recovery” campaign.

The call aligns with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s recent From Crisis to Care report, which calls for a more coordinated approach to prevention, treatment and recovery as these interconnected challenges increasingly impact businesses and communities across Ontario.

In Barrie, that coordinated approach is taking shape through partnerships across business, government, health care, social services and the community. The Barrie Chamber is proud to be part of that work through Barrie Cares.

Campus of Care, Phase I

The first phase of Barrie’s Campus of Care is taking shape at the former County of Simcoe Paramedic building at 113 Tiffin Street, near Anne Street. The temporary Campus provides a more coordinated point of access to support for people experiencing homelessness, including a kitchen and dining area, warming space, urgent care service rooms and connections to health, housing and community services.

Immediately adjacent, the County of Simcoe’s Bridge to Stability program provides 40 temporary bridge-housing units. Together, these initiatives are creating a pathway from crisis toward greater stability and permanent housing.

Barrie Cares is also advancing the longer-term vision for a permanent Campus of Care, working with government, health-care, housing, social-service, business and community partners to explore a more coordinated system of care. The vision is not simply to respond more effectively once someone reaches crisis, but to strengthen prevention, improve access to appropriate mental-health and addiction treatment, create pathways to supportive and permanent housing, and reduce the likelihood that people cycle repeatedly through shelters, hospitals, emergency services and the justice system. Input from front-line service providers and people with lived and living experience will be essential as that vision continues to develop.

Housing

Significant new housing is also moving forward across Barrie. The City’s Development Charge Waiver Pilot Program identified projects with the potential for 1,946 new homes, including 456 affordable units, while the County of Simcoe’s 20 Rose Street development will add approximately 215 affordable rental units alongside social, health and community services.

While Barrie continues to build housing and strengthen local supports, municipalities and community partners cannot create the mental-health, addictions, treatment, recovery and supportive-housing capacity required on their own. Provincial leadership is essential — not only to help communities respond to crisis, but to invest upstream in prevention and early intervention so fewer Ontarians reach crisis in the first place.

Provincial Leadership

Ontario’s Big City Mayors are calling for expanded and timely access to treatment and recovery programs, dedicated provincial leadership and funding, legislative changes and a stronger response to a crisis affecting communities across Ontario.

“Barrie is showing what can happen when business, community and government work together. But local action can only go so far. We need the Province at the table with the resources and treatment capacity to move people from crisis to recovery,” said Paul Markle, President & CEO of the Greater Barrie Chamber of Commerce.

Barrie’s experience demonstrates that solutions do not come from any one organization or level of government. They come from within communities when business, government, health care, social services and people with lived experience work together around shared outcomes. Barrie is building that collaborative foundation. What we now need is a provincial partner prepared to help communities turn local collaboration into sustainable, system-level change.

This is both a social and economic imperative, with the impacts of homelessness, mental health and addictions felt across our businesses, neighbourhoods, and public services. Lasting change requires the Province to build on the work happening locally.

The Barrie Chamber will continue working with our partners to advance local solutions and advocate for the provincial action our community needs.

Add Your Voice

The Barrie Chamber is encouraging Barrie businesses and residents to join Ontario’s Big City Mayors in calling for urgent action on homelessness, mental health and addictions.

Visit SolveTheCrisis.ca to learn more and add your voice to the call to move Ontario from reaction to recovery.

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