Mayoral candidates’ visions for homelessness & affordability

Stephen J. Donkers — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:14:46 +0000

With the 2026 Barrie municipal election campaign ramping up, the candidates for mayor are outlining their priorities, with affordability, public safety, growth and homelessness emerging as key issues.

Incumbent Mayor Alex Nuttall is seeking a second term, while Tanya Saari, Kay Sayer and Russell Tighe are also running for the city’s top political office.

Nuttall told Compass News that affordability, public safety and traffic safety are the issues he hears most often while campaigning across Barrie.

“On affordability, people are feeling the pressure,” he said.

“We’ve worked hard to keep costs down at City Hall. We eliminated the 4 per cent rain tax increase and delivered one of the lowest tax increases in the province,” Nuttall said. “We also held City Operations increases at 0 per cent for four years. We kept infrastructure increases to 2 per cent, and I’ve reduced that to 1 per cent going forward.”

Homelessness and addiction are also central to the incumbent’s public safety platform.

Nuttall pointed to the city’s response to encampments, including declaring a state of emergency in September 2025, providing outreach support before removing tents and enforcing trespassing orders.

“We need to keep making sure people have an opportunity to get help while continuing to restore safety and order in our public spaces,” he said.

Nuttall said Barrie needs greater investment in rehabilitation services and changes to the Mental Health Act to allow for what he described as a compassionate form of intervention.

“There’s more work to do – it is not compassionate to leave someone overdosing on the side of the street,” he said.

“It is compassionate to get that person help and support for their addiction and mental and physical health. We also invested with the Province and County in the HART Hub to give people a pathway to treatment and recovery. We need to keep making sure people have an opportunity to get help while continuing to restore safety and order in our public spaces.”

“Moving people from one place to another isn’t the answer”

Saari, managing director of Redwood Communities and a local realtor, is making homelessness a key part of her campaign.

She has previously run for council twice and was the federal Liberal candidate for Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte in the 2021 federal election.

On the city’s ongoing state of emergency related to homelessness and encampments, Saari said she would first determine what it is accomplishing before deciding whether to continue or end it.

“I don’t think tents in our parks are the answer, but moving people from one place to another isn’t the answer either,” she said.

“If we want fewer encampments, we need to give people somewhere else to go. I want us putting more of our energy into long-term solutions that actually move people out of homelessness, particularly supportive housing.”

Saari also addressed whether she would support reconsidering a supervised consumption site in Barrie.

A proposed site at 11 Innisfil St. was cancelled in 2024 after applications had been made to Health Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Health.

“I don’t have a firm yes or no position on supervised consumption at this point,” she said.

“I want to understand the evidence, what’s worked and what hasn’t, and listen to the people working directly in addictions and mental health before taking a position. A lot has changed around supervised consumption sites in Ontario. The province has moved away from that model toward HART Hubs.”

Saari also identified growth and affordability as major challenges facing Barrie.

“I want us to take a hard look at what we’re spending, what we’ve already committed to, and what we can realistically afford over the next four years,” she said.

“The emergency is secrecy”

Sayer, who has been a Barrie resident since May 2026, focused her campaign responses on government transparency, taxation and what she described as provincial responsibility for municipal pressures.

On homelessness, Sayer said the focus should be broader than encampments.

“The emergency isn’t tents. The emergency is secrecy,” she said.

“Since the convoy, government froze accounts paid with our taxes because people disagreed. That must be addressed by (Premier) Ford and all mayors. Keep the emergency only if we use it to force transparency. Cancel the hiding.”

Sayer also called for greater transparency across municipal spending, a stronger focus on community organizations and a more unified approach from Ontario mayors in dealing with the provincial government.

The 2026 Barrie municipal election will take place Oct. 26.

Compass News contacted Tighe for comment but had received no response by publication time.

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Mayoral candidates’ visions for homelessness & affordability

“Moving people from one place to another isn’t the answer”

“The emergency is secrecy”