After several building and funding delays, supportive Barrie city council members contacted the BPFFA Executive and Political Action Team. They were advised that plans for the Fire Station was being added to the Federal and Provincial stimulus funding package put forward in a proposal by the City and that we would face further delays.

The Fire Chief called upon the Association's Executive to see what they could do with their friendly politicians to speed up this process.  A call was placed to the extremely supportive MP, Patrick Brown. He quickly put a plan into action and within a couple of weeks, the City had the funding that the department required, to go ahead with the Fire Station project and many other important improvements throughout the city.

Strict time lines were placed on the city to ensure that the projects weren't delayed any further and construction on the new headquarters is required, in the package, to be completed by 2011. 

On June 5th, 2009, a mere two weeks after the request for political assistance, both MP Patrick Brown and MPP Aileen Carroll, along with our Fire Chief, City Councilors and Senior City Officials were on hand for a presentation of the funding.

The new fire hall, to be built on the former Barrie (Dunlop) Arena site, would include a heritage room, costing $400,000, to house the department's historical equipment -- the history of the Barrie fire department in the last 100 years, items which the department is unable to display anywhere else at this time.

The new fire hall would also use artifacts from the demolished hockey arena. All of the wooden beams from Barrie Area were recycled, and two sets of wood trusses are to be used in the heritage portion of the new fire hall.

The two-storey glassed heritage display is to be visible to Dunlop Street West. Two antique fire trucks, an antique hose wagon and numerous pieces of firefighting equipment and memorabilia, currently kept at different sites, will be displayed.

Every piece of the city's hockey history and heritage contained within Barrie Arena that can be reused or preserved for use or display in other facilities was also saved. Memorabilia such as banners, pictures and other history from the rink is being stored by the city until it's decided how it should be displayed.

The 38,600-square-foot fire hall will also house Barrie's emergency operations centre, and have the appropriate technological and telecommunications systems.

Along with the heritage room, there will be an urban plaza, a bell tower, interpretive panels and public art space included in the new hall.