$11 million for consultants? Sault councillor has a problem with that

Following the lead of the federal government, Ward 4 Coun. Stephan Kinach is pushing to have the City of Sault Ste. Marie slash the amount of tax dollars it spends on consultants.

Kinach has tallied up what the previous council spent on consultants from 2019 to 2023 and reckons it was around $11 million.

He wants more of that work done by the city's in-house staff.

At Monday's city council meeting, he and wardmate Marchy Bruni will ask that consulting fees be included as a line item in the city budget to allow them to be scrutinized more closely.

The Treasury Board of Canada wants to cut back on federal outsourcing.

Last October, it set new guidelines to help public service managers determine which consulting and other professional services should be contracted out and which should be done in-house.

Here's the full text of the Kinach-Bruni resolution to be presented at Monday's city council meeting.

The meeting will be live-streamed on SooToday starting at 5 p.m.

Use of consultants

Mover: Coun. S. Kinach
Seconder: Coun. M. Bruni

Whereas the city has increased its dependences on consultants over the years; and

Whereas the federal government has just reviewed its consulting policy and found that it was overspending; and

Whereas consulting fees are not currently a line item in the budget and therefore cannot be properly discussed at the budget meeting; and

Whereas the previous council spent roughly $11 million between 2019-2023 on consulting services;

Now therefore be it resolved that staff be requested to report back to city council with a plan to make consultant fees a line item in the budget, reduce reliance on consulting firms, and a strategy to have more projects done in-house.