This report will only show hired consultants after they have been paid. Isn’t that a bit like shutting the barn door after horse has left?

“….reports that will outline the consultants hired for various services.”

“…information being sought by Council would include information such as Mercury and Associates…. or the consultants hired for things like engineering work or public surveys.”

What are they looking for, the names of the consulting firms and what kind of work they were hired for or what?

How can it take staff (one person or a team) five hours to put the names and jobs done together on a piece of paper? Are there hundreds or thousands?

lol, another useless tax expense.

This is exactly the type of information that people have been asking for. And yet there are still complaints. Go figure.

Does the City not have computerized accounts which list expenditures and the category they fall into? Shouldn’t it be a simple matter of searching for the consulting category? Even if there are a large number of consulting contracts, this should only take a few minutes.

Council wants a report that shows consultants hired for under $25000.00 and consultants hired for over $25000.00 and the amounts paid.

I doubt if getting this report will require a lot of time and energy, its more likely that Beth James nose is out of joint because Council requested the information in the first place.

ALL THAT HIGH PRICED HELP AND NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING.LAYOFFS SHOULD HAVE BEEN AT THE TOP better off without them,things probably just let people do their job with no confusion

Devil is in the details. Great to see some more transparency even if its a rear view look at the books. My guess is Beth James doesn’t like the idea of this because it will help to expose the city staff as not having the skills that should be required for the salaries they receive.

Why have over a hundred people at city hall making over $100,000 a year when we are still having to pay huge dollars for consultant reports? May as well send them all packing and flatten the structure at city hall and just pay the consultants when we need the advice.

It would be great to see a year to year comparison before and after the reporting comes into effect.

This helps no doubt, but this is a far cry from transparency. Things like IPG which is a private society and therefor does not have to report access to information requests, and yet it is 100% funded by the city… fold it into the city and we begin to get some transparency from the black hole of IPG for example.

The big problem with city hall is they act on their own and formulate policy that should be formulated in council by elected officials, and the first residents of PG hear of things is when it is already a done deal put before council for a vote… or in this case reported after the fact. Vested interests try to tell us this is the role of administration and management and that elected officials should know their place… but that is not democracy.

We need a process to allow citizen input into the creation of citizen committees that involve all stakeholders and every issue that is on the road to council, so in this way all can have input and all can watch the process as it develops, and even have a vote or say before it finally reaches city council for their elected judgement… that is transparency and that takes leadership we do not have. I would suggest that will take a revised city web site that allows for input from recognized citizens of PG eligible to vote… in regards to nominating issues for committees, providing input on committee topics, and voting in plebiscites on issues coming from committees on their way to council for a vote.

Time Will Tell

“Even if there are a large number of consulting contracts, this should only take a few minutes.”

Exactly! One would think that the councillors can go on their computers at City Hall and look up the information at any time they need to or want to do so!

Not only that, what would be even better if it would be accessible on the City website, so us ordinary (but important) taxpayer folks can check where our taxes went!