HEART BARRIE DONATIONS IN ETHICAL 'GREY AREA': CAO

TWENTY-EIGHT SPONSORS GAVE BETWEEN $5,000 AND $20,000 INCLUDING EIGHT DEVELOPERS

It's not the approach Barrie staff would have taken toward fundraising.

During a general committee meeting June 13, city chief administrative officer Michael Prowse was questioned by Coun. Keenan Aylwin about the amount of money raised by Coun. Mike McCann's Heart Barrie company — specifically the number of builders who donated thousands of dollars toward the campaign that will see a "Love Barrie" waterfront landmark sign erected at Heritage Park this summer.

"On the list of donors, there were developers with pending planning applications in front of the city," Aylwin said. "That raised a question for me around our donation policy. I understand staff aren't involved with this particular donation process delegated to the councillor solely. Is that something we allow — donations from developers with pending applications?"

Those types of donations are technically allowed under city policy, but would have been discouraged if the campaign was run by staff, Prowse said.

"(The policy) generally speaks to what is a charitable donation, where we may consider a tax receipt for the person donating," he said. "It doesn't really speak to the grey area as to whether it's a good judgment donation or not. We would probably not accept donations at the same time as a planning application."

A late-May City of Barrie memorandum shows Heart Barrie received at least $375,000 in donations for the sign. However, only $195,000 of that was handed over to the municipality as part of a fundraising agreement. The document breaks down the group of prominent donors into $20,000, $10,000 and $5,000 categories.

Of the 28 sponsors on

that list, there are at least eight developers — five who donated $20,000, two who gave $10,000 and one who gave $5,000. All developers on the list appear to have either planned, active or recently-completed building projects in the city.

Other donors named include media companies, property managers, a credit union, a night club and a tree farm.

The sign, once installed, will include a 10-foot-tall heart leaning against the

word "Barrie." The letters will be no higher than eight feet.

Sponsors will be recognized by having their names embossed and colour-branded on concrete at the base of the sign.

McCann did not respond directly to Aylwin's questions. Nor did he answer multiple requests for comment from Simcoe.com following the meeting.

However, he did commit during council a week prior to provide further details around the fundraiser.

"I firmly believe in full transparency," he said. "I did not raise $375,000. It was closer to ($300,000). Some of the sponsors did not sponsor on a dollar amount. They contributed in-kind — whether that was media or administration. I also collected HST, which I collected and sent to the federal government."

McCann said he raised the $200,000 for the project as initially promised, providing a $150,000 cheque to the city on Oct. 10, 2021, and the remaining $50,000 on March 31.

He said he's hired a professional accounting firm to prepare a "monies in, monies out" spreadsheet.

"I'll be sharing this with the city's finance department once all my money is collected," McCann said.

He also promised in June 2021 to donate any additional funds related to the sign project toward beaver and turtle rescue programs in the city, though it's unclear which specific organizations he's targeted so far, or when those funds will be delivered.

"Staff are not involved in the fundraising component, nor the designation of where additional proceeds may go," Prowse said. "Council directed the funds be split, fairly generically, between a save the turtle and save the beavers program."