CITY STILL WAITING ON FINANCIALS FOR 'LOVE BARRIE' SIGN

MIKE MCCANN LED THE PRIVATE FUNDRAISING ELEMENT OF THE PROJECT WHILE HE SERVED AS COUNCILLOR

You can see the love, just not the paper trail behind it.

The City of Barrie's financial department has confirmed it still has not received a full breakdown of the money raised for the "Love Barrie" landmark sign from now former councillor Mike McCann.

McCann, who was defeated in a bid for mayor by Alex Nuttall in the October municipal election, led the private fundraising element of the project, while he served as councillor.

Multiple attempts to reach McCann for comment were unsuccessful.

However, he had previously promised to provide a financial statement to the municipality — with details on exactly how much his "Heart Barrie" company collected — following a donor appreciation scheduled for early December. When Simcoe.com last connected with McCann on Jan. 9, he said the "(financials) are done."

"I have hired a (third) party to review and sign off on the accounting," he said at the time. "I hired a (third) party so there would be no questions of dishonesty. The review should be done this month."

The city did collect the $200,000 necessary to complete construction of the sign at Heritage Park last

year, along with a list of project donors.

In late spring 2022, the municipality published a memorandum showing McCann's company received at least $375,000 in donations for the sign, breaking down the group of prominent donors into $20,000, $10,000 and $5,000 categories.

Since then, the city's

chief administrative officer has openly taken issue with the number of builders who donated thousands of dollars toward the project. And in September, just over two months after being installed, the sign became the target of vandalism.

Then in November, the heart element of the structure had to be removed and sent for repairs because its base was cracked and its face was broken in multiple spots. The framing holding it in place was also damaged.

Simcoe.com reached out to four of the sponsors that donated to the sign. Two did not reply. The others declined to comment publicly, though one did add that "any time I've dealt with (McCann) he has been of good character and I was under the understanding that there were financials being done ... but I never really did follow up or dig deeper of how it was going to be spent. I haven't done any due diligence past the initial donation for the most part."

Nuttall was not on council when the sign was approved and installed. Nevertheless, he reaffirmed to Simcoe.com March 16 that he was "not involved in any of the decision-making with respect to the sign, but my hope is that everyone waiting for answers receives them in the very near future."

Following his election defeat, McCann posted a video to his Facebook page in an attempt to explain why he fundraised so much for the sign.

"Why did I raise more than two hundred (thousand)? Because any smart businessperson never raises the minimum," McCann said. "You need to raise more for contingencies. I had so many sponsors that wanted to be part of this project, so why wouldn't I take their money?"

Funding will also benefit "turtles" and other "great charities," or a "great event" that supports the "Love Barrie" initiative. But it'll be the sponsors that choose how the money is ultimately used, he said.