Achi news desk-
Barrie’s poet laureate will get a much-needed financial boost after city councilors voted to back her push for more money Wednesday, but it also comes with changes.
Barrie city councilors voted seven to four in favor of supporting a request to increase the role’s annual salary to $2,500, with an additional budget for hosting events.
The funding means that the annual salary will increase from $1,000 to $2,500 per year, with an additional $1,500 for public events and up to $250 for travel expenses. Before this the poet laureate had no extra money for events.
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In January, Tyneisha Ternent, Barrie’s fourth poet laureate, spoke to Global about the need for more financial support for the role to make it more like what other communities of a similar size were offering.
“Poet Laureate is a prestigious title. It’s an honor, and I want to be the best poet laureate I can be, and I need a little bit more to work with him, to do an even better job,” he said in January.
Other changes to the register included reducing the term of the position from 4 years to 2 years, starting with the council’s next term.
Councilors also voted to remove the library’s chief librarian or CAO, a poet laureate from another community, and a civic culture staff member from the poet laureate selection committee and replace them with three council members.
Amy Courser, Ward 4 Barrie councillor, fought this, suggesting instead that they add two councilors instead of eliminating the three community posts, but her proposal was defeated.
The poet laureate is an honorary designation that promotes poetry, language, and the arts by raising its profile through public engagement and civic interactions. The poet laureate acts as a literary ambassador and works to teach and promote poetry and the literary arts in Barrie.
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
