TORONTO - The City employs thousands of motivated, skilled, and trained professionals and subject matter experts. The services and advice that these public servants provide on a daily basis helps to ensure that Toronto is consistently ranked as one of the best cities in the world to live in. That is why at the October meeting of Council, Councillor Josh Matlow is introducing MM33.4 - Taking Back Control of Our City Services to Deliver Higher Standards, Lower Costs and Greater Accountability, seconded by Mayor Chow.
Unfortunately, a troubling trend has emerged in recent years. Spending on outside consultants rose markedly over the tenure of the previous administration. From 2014 to 2023 (the most recent year data was made available), the City and its Agencies increased spending on outside consultants from $11.2 million to $57.7 million. This figure does not capture considerable additional expenditures on consultants involved with the delivery of capital projects.
While the City will always require some external expertise, core responsibilities such as playground design, planning studies, and crosswalks should not be contracted out to high-priced firms. Apart from the increased cost of contracting consultants, there are also ancillary benefits of performing more of this work in-house. A City of Toronto employee has flexibility to perform several roles on our residents’ behalf as opposed to an outside consultant hired to do a discrete task. Job satisfaction is also higher when public servants are engaged with the work they trained for instead of managing external partners to perform the same job. Hiring consultants also involves issuing a request for proposal, which can delay the start of a project by months while staff evaluate the contract bids.
Councillor Matlow’s motion requests the City Manager and Division Heads to prioritize the use of our public service over procuring outside consultants to more effectively deliver services for Toronto residents.
Four months after Doug Ford announced his intention to bring jets to Billy Bishop Airport, the Federal Government published a letter on July 24 stating they would not be supporting the project at this time.
And Carney’s Liberals made some important commitments: they will not pursue any plans that infringe on public spaces such as Little Norway Park or Hanlan’s Point Beach, result in elevated noise, have significant environmental impacts, or hinder Toronto’s ability to build much-needed new housing such as in planned neighbourhoods like Ookwemin Minising.
This was a big victory that was achieved by tens of thousands of Torontonians who made it clear that Doug Ford’s voice isn’t the only one that matters. However, while we celebrate this win, we must also read Ottawa’s letter with sober eyes. It wasn’t an announcement that an expansion will never happen — it was meant to set the grounds for a conversation. We must prepare for what’s next.