Private consultants

More and more frequently, public services (Provincial, Metro and City) headed by
elected officials rely upon the hiring of private consultants to substantiate political
decisions with technical assessments and plans that are often poorly conceived,
and rarely take into account the desires of affected communities or protection of
local ecologies. This is perceived as wasteful doling out of taxpayers money.
Most communities do not see how such frequent recourse to private consultants
can be justified, when the City and Metro employ large numbers of technical
people, hopefully chosen with the right qualifications, and who, in principle, are
paid to generate such technical plans and assessments.

1. If you are elected, will you curb the systematic recourse to the hiring of private
consultants for technical assessments and town-planning solutions?

2. If you are elected, will you divulge openly and publicly what are the names of
private consultants currently hired by the City, and identify their tasks?

3. If you are elected, will you review the need for maintaining these private
consultants, on a task by task basis?

4. [FOR INCUMBENT MAYORAL CANDIDATES] Will you disclose how
much the City spent each year, for the past 4 years, on consultant fees? Will you
disclose the names of the hired private consultants before the October 25th
election?

5. [FOR NON-INCUMBENT MAYORAL CANDIDATES] If you are elected,
will you annually disclose and justify the City’s expenses on consultant fees, and
will you disclose the names of the private consultants hired by the City?