The three candidates running to become Barrie's next mayor offered competing visions for tackling the city's biggest challenges during a debate Tuesday night.
Incumbent Alex Nuttall, former city council candidate Tanya Saari and restaurant manager Russell J. Tighe took the stage at Grace United Church, answering questions on homelessness and addictions, city spending, strong mayor powers, data centres and more.
The debate was hosted by the Barrie chapter of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) and moderated by Al Jones.
Fellow candidate Kay Sayers was invited by organizers to participate, but did not attend.
While the candidates broadly agreed on the challenges facing Barrie, they offered different approaches to addressing them, with little direct conflict between the three.
On homelessness and addictions, the candidates agreed Barrie needs to address both public safety and the needs of people in crisis, but differed on how to do it.
Nuttall pointed to the city's investment in downtown policing and the HART Hub, saying the next step is getting more people who are unwilling to accept help connected with treatment.
In April, the mayor called on the provincial government to support changes to legislation that would allow for mandatory, involuntary rehabilitation for addictions, and he reiterated his desire for it to be fast-tracked.
Saari supports a housing-first model for people leaving treatment programs, saying the city needs to ensure people have somewhere stable to go once they leave programs such as the HART Hub and bridge housing.
"It really comes down to dealing with the whole problem instead of just moving it around," she said. "Clearing an encampment is not solving homelessness. Moving somebody, some people somewhere else in the city is not solving homelessness, and neither is a shelter bed for the night."
She also questioned the effectiveness of mandatory treatment, saying the city still struggles to get people into treatment even when they want it.
Tighe, a recovering addict himself, called for more outreach and stabilization teams to work alongside the city's police service, saying officers should focus on enforcement while specialized teams build relationships with people experiencing homelessness, addiction and mental health challenges.
"We shouldn't even pick someone up if you can't carry them through the whole journey," Tighe said.
The candidates also offered different approaches to managing the city's finances and the burden on property taxpayers.
Saari said residents deserve greater transparency about how much they are actually paying, arguing that focusing solely on municipal tax increases does not tell the full story of a household's bill.
She called for a line-by-line review of the city's budget to identify duplication and unnecessary spending, saying major projects should be evaluated based on whether the city can afford them now or whether they should be delayed.
"I want to protect the things people actually rely on, and I want to be willing to delay things we simply can't afford right now," she said. "That's how you and I run our household budgets, and I think the city should be doing the same thing."
Saari also said the city should look for efficiencies in areas including policing, while stressing that she does not support cutting police resources.
Tighe said Barrie needs to reduce its reliance on residential property taxes by attracting more commercial and industrial investment.
He proposed increasing development charges on large commercial, industrial and logistics projects, while using growth to help fund infrastructure and reduce pressure on homeowners.
Nuttall defended his record on taxes and spending, pointing to four consecutive years of zero-per-cent increases in the city's operating tax rate, and touting his relationships with federal and provincial government officials that help bring the city more funding.
He said increases in the overall tax bill have largely come from infrastructure investments and charges from other organizations, including two conservation authorities, and the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
Saari, who is the managing director of an affordable housing organization and a realtor, earned the first audience applause of the evening when answering on housing alternatives for seniors in front of a predominantly senior crowd.
"We need to do whatever we can to get this built," she said regarding a co-housing pod-style community living solution pitched by the CARP. "If it's zoning requirements, then we need to fast track those zoning requirements... these things take time, but let's not be reactive, let's be proactive."
Nuttall had initially raised the proposal, which he and Tighe said they would support.
When asked about strong mayor powers, all three candidates said they would use the authority sparingly, but offered different reasons for doing so.
Saari said she would prefer to work through council and would only consider using the powers when required by legislation, such as in certain budget matters, and promised to be transparent about the reasoning behind any use.
Nuttall defended his use of the powers during his first term, saying he had used them sparingly and that the measures he introduced generally had broad support from council.
"Strong mayor's was a non-issue for this council," he said. "I didn't have anyone come and complain to me about strong mayor's one time."
Tighe said he would use the powers only in situations involving public safety, legal obligations or other urgent matters, and not "to bypass democracy."
A question submitted anonymously by an audience member on a possible moratorium on new data centres produced the most divergent answers of the night.
Tighe did not commit to a moratorium, but said it would not be a priority.
"I want to deal with a crisis before I potentially create any more," he said.
Meanwhile, Saari said she supports a moratorium to give the city time to better understand the potential impacts on the community.
"Nobody really has enough information to provide us with an answer right now as to what the impacts would be from environmental, to noise pollution, to water usage," she said.
Nuttall's answer earned applause as he said the city needs a better understanding of its capacity for a data centre and what it could take away in terms of other opportunities. He added that he was generally "not down" for data centres but would be open to it if the federal government reached out and said they needed it for a sovereignty-related project.
"I'm going to vote for Canadian sovereignty every single time."
The final question asked the candidates to name three measurable accomplishments they would want Barrie residents to use to judge their records.
Tighe's priorities were reducing homelessness, increasing affordable housing and attracting economic investment. He said he'd measure progress by reductions in unsheltered homelessness and crisis calls, increases in supportive and affordable housing, and more commercial and industrial investment to broaden the city's tax base.
Saari focused on reducing homelessness, improving fiscal responsibility and working with residents and council.
"I would like you to look at me as the mayor who collaborated," she said. "When we are people that work together as a community, we all thrive, and that is how we actually see results."
Nuttall finished by setting three specific targets: bringing 2,000 new manufacturing jobs to the city, building and filling 800 affordable housing units, and "getting our streets back."
Ontario's municipal elections take place on Oct. 26 with advance voting in Barrie beginning on Oct. 22.
