News

No one ever accused Barrie of lacking festival spirit, but as Kempenfest approaches its next season, the city’s enthusiasm is matched only by unease over its financial footing. Kempenfest, a fixture on Barrie’s waterfront since the mid-1970s, has evolved from a modest arts gathering into an economic and cultural powerhouse. For decades, the festival has […]

Steel beams catch the afternoon sun on Bayview Drive, where Barrie’s bold gamble on a new YMCA has begun to take shape—a $70 million wager on the city’s future, and a signal that community means more than words. At the heart of this ambitious project is a notion both simple and profound: that a city’s

A stray shaft of sunlight warms the old dog’s fur as he dozes by the window, unaware that help is on the way—not from a clinic, but from a van parked quietly outside his Barrie home. Mobile veterinary care is reshaping how families in Barrie and Huntsville address their pets’ final days. The arrival of

Red lights flash in a mid-morning drizzle, a school bus idles, and for a heartbeat, every parent in Barrie holds their breath. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have made it plain: missing a stop for a school bus is no longer a minor oversight—it’s a costly mistake. Since the start of the school year, the

Six minutes can draw the line between disaster and relief in an emergency. In Barrie’s southeast, that margin just narrowed with the arrival of Fire Station 6 at the corner of Mapleview Drive East and Prince William Way. When Mayor Alex Nuttall and Fire Chief Kevin White uncoupled a fire hose to mark the station’s