There is the Mariposa School of Skating - which is a skating academy where Jeff Buttle and many other high-level skaters train/have trained, then, there is the Mariposa Winter Club, which is a skating club - however, they share the ice. There is a difference ... Canadians have to belong to a Skate Canada club, but, may be members for training at a skating academy in addition if they so wish. Training at the Academy means that you don't have to lose your home club or regional affliation.
Barrie, though, is a bit of a hike north of Toronto!
Link to Mariposa:
http://www.skatemariposa.com/index.phpPublic Skate in Toronto is exactly that - it is public - anyone skates, it is a lot of hockey players and kids, and generally you cannot figure skate, and the ice is often not particularly great. You can go happily around in circlesm often for free. However, as they are publicly funded, many of the arenas do shut down in the summer - there are lots of reasons why Toronto (T.O.) recreation facilities are not as available as people would like, primarily, cost and funding.
What the US seems to have, which is drop-in figure skating, does not exist as public skating, but, rather, as Skate Canada sanctioned ticket ice, where you have to have a Skate Canada (or equivalent US affiliation) membership for insurance purposes. I've never had a problem finding ticket ice in T.O. ... so, not sure why and am very sorry that you've had a problem doing it. If I know where in T.O. you are, I can give you some more specific places to go - T.O. is huge, of course!