One week in: Barrie’s state of emergency sparks community feedback

'We cannot face this crisis alone', Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall voiced Tuesday, issuing a stark message to Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

It’s been a week since Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall declared a state of emergency over homeless encampments, and the city’s business community is sounding the alarm.

The Barrie Chamber of Commerce has launched a public survey to gather feedback on the crisis, focusing on housing issues and the impact on downtown businesses.

“What we’re trying to do is illustrate the additional expense and costs that are associated with some of the issues that are happening in our inner cities as they relate to encampments and housing and just social issues in general,” said Paul Markle, CEO of Barrie Chamber of Commerce.

• Extended | Barrie homeless encampments

According to the letter of information on the survey page, the purpose is to identify and document how businesses, organizations, and associations are responding to increasing community safety concerns.

“It [the survey] asks questions like what things are you noticing in your community, or are you seeing damage to property,” said Markle. “Then on the other side, what are you doing to help out and what things do you know that are happening in the community to help solve the problem?”

Nuttall and the City issued notices to members of an encampment on Mulcaster Street on Wednesday last week. The tents were cleared from the area one day later.

Steve Ricalis, co-owner of Donaleigh’s Irish Public House and Dunlop Street Diner, said businesses are noticing a slight change.

“Since they’ve taken the encampment away, we’ve noticed a little bit more on the street, but in the last couple days, we noticed that it’s dissipated, quite a bit for sure,” said Ricalis, who is also chair of the BIA for Downtown Barrie.

According to Ricalis, the lasting impact of the campsites has deterred residents from enjoying what the city’s downtown has to offer.

“I know for a fact that we are still down probably 25 per cent, and the foot traffic has definitely slowed down significantly over the last three or four years,” Ricalis added. “I think it still has a lot to do with all this.”

The Downtown BIA is doing what it can to help restore the area.

“I think downtown struggles. I think it has a bad rap because of the homelessness and the drug abuse, but I think we’re doing the open airs and the Troubadour Festival and doing things like that and bringing people back downtown is a big part of trying to revitalize, even provide investment, in the downtown area,” said Ricalis.

With the chamber echoing the mayor, emphasizing change will not happen quickly.

“I think that’s fair to the people that are unhoused at the moment, it’s going to take a multi-sectoral, multi-agency approach to get this fixed, as best we can and I think we have to be patient to a certain extent,” said Markle.

The survey was released on Sept. 1 and will run until Nov.30.

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