The City of Barrie continues to be one of Canada's fastest growing and dynamic cities. Barrie is a city of approximately 128,000 residents, the 35th largest municipality in Canada.

Location & Transportation

Barrie is located Fifty minutes north of Toronto surrounding the shores of Kempenfelt Bay on Lake Simcoe. Barrie is also within a half hour of Georgian Bay and some of Ontario's most sought-after tourist destinations like Wasaga Beach, Midland, and Collingwood and Being strategically situated between Toronto and Muskoka on Highway 400 the Highway 11 and Highway 400 interchange is considered by many to be the gateway to these and many other northern Ontario resort destinations (referred to as cottage country).Barrie is accessible via Highways 90, 400, 27, 11 and has convenient access to Highway 401, the Highway 407 Express Toll Route and to neighbouring Toronto via Highway 400, a six lane highway that runs directly through Barrie. Barrie Transportation also includes services such as Commuter service between Barrie and Toronto through the Go-Bus and Go-Train. GO-Train service to and from Barrie and Toronto commenced December 17, 2007 with regular scheduled departures and arrivals from the new Barrie South GO Station.

Greyhound Canada Offers passenger bus service and courier service throughout Canada and the U.S and Ontario Northland Transportation which offers passenger bus, rail, and marine travel in Ontario. For travel within Barrie, you'll find the Barrie Transit buses scheduled to arrive and depart thoughout the day from the Barrie Bus Terminal.

Recreation & Culture

With a pristine waterfront location on Lake Simcoe, Barrie is a vibrant and attractive city with swimmable beaches and challenging ski opportunities. Several parks line beautiful Kempenfelt Bay with extensive biking, roller blading and walking trail. Sports and recreational activities, like skiing, baseball, hockey and boating attract people to Barrie as its location in proximity to the great outdoors and recreational activities encouraged by the Barrie Tourism board, promotes an active and healthy lifestyle. Barrie's waterfront is at the heart of its tourism industry, and major attractions like the Serendipity Princess that take more than 40,000 people cruising on the bay each year. Barrie is home to numerous attractions, including year-round festivals and events like Kempenfest arts and crafts festival and the Barrie Latin Festival a waterfront community event full of Latin entertainment and flavour. Other cultural attractions include the Gryphon Theatre, and an international concert and performance venue at the Barrie Molson Centre and the MacLaren Art Centre, an innovative art gallery.

Community

The Royal Victoria hospital in Barrie is a $120 Million health care facility that was constructed in 1997 next to Barrie's Georgian College a higly regarded institute offering advanced studies and some University Programming as well as unique cooperative training in it's adjacent Royal Victoria Hospital. The Barrie Public Library a 40,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art public library, located in Downtown Barrie  serves Barrie's resident's of all ages and Information Barrie is a service of the Library, providing information about community groups, agencies, government offices, churches, daycare, schools, and more.