Mayor-led group could consider contracting out city services

A small working group that includes Mayor Mark Sutcliffe could soon be charged with overseeing several targeted reviews of City of Ottawa's services and programs to assess whether they're best done in-house, by a contractor, though a public-private partnership or another setup.

Sutcliffe campaigned during the fall election on a promise to "launch a strategic review of existing city spending" to find savings of between $35 and $60 million.

Among the documents tabled for the 2023 draft budget is a statement of principles as well as a roadmap for how such service reviews would take place over the four-year term of this city council. Staff made their recommendations in consultation with the mayor, according to the budget's report.

The documents state the overarching idea is to build a "competitive culture" at the city, not to make "service level cuts." City services and programs would be held up against industry best practices and benchmarks, and multiple ways of delivering those programs would be assessed, they state.

The interim city manager, Wendy Stephanson, explained at a committee meeting on Feb. 7 that the goal is to challenge how the city does its business and see if efficiencies can free up money for other programs.

Three-person working group

If the documents are approved as part of the final budget vote on March 1, a three-person working group would be created that includes the mayor, the chair of audit committee Coun. Cathy Curry, and one councillor at large.

That working group would assess which city programs and services are the best candidates and oversee detailed service reviews, possibly several a year. A core group of city staff would assist, and the city manager's office would "liaise" with the auditor general.

"We want it to be a tight working group," Sutcliffe explained at city hall when the finance committee's portion of the budget was discussed. "But everything that we decide, everything that we recommend, is going to go to council and there will be lots of time for everybody to discuss it."

The reviews could include a "strong challenge function by volunteer industry experts from external public and private organizations", according to the documents.

Council previously discussed auditor involvement

Council members had known the current 2023 budget cycle would come up too quickly for any comprehensive review of spending, but expected one would take place in time for 2024.

At council's Dec. 7 meeting, Rideau-Jock Coun. David Brown, proposed asking the auditor general to do that work, and several of his colleagues liked the idea of seeing an objective, non-political look at the city's programs.

Curry tabled a replacement motion in the same meeting asking that the finance committee instead look at a variety of options, which might include the auditor or possibly a working group of councillors, external experts, and staff.

Neither motion was approved, and ultimately the Brown motion was postponed to the first audit committee meeting — scheduled for Friday, Feb. 17. In the meantime, the roadmap and principles for service reviews appeared Feb. 1 as part of the budget documents.

Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard now regrets the city auditor general Nathalie Gougeon won't be involved. He's also concerned by the language in the document about what forms of city services delivery might be considered and hopes it can be re-worded before the final vote.

The document lays out a list of delivery methods for programs to consider that would include: "internal as-is, internal re-engineering, managed competition, contracting out, and public-private partnership(s)"

"After the LRT [public inquiry] report has come out, those things have to be questioned now," said Menard, pointing to the concerns the commissioner raised about the city's public-private partnership with Rideau Transit Group.

"I don't think that's the big idea we're looking for when it comes to the strategic review as a whole of council."

As for how the city's workforce might or might not be affected by service reviews, the statement of principles states that "provisions of the collective agreement(s) will be respected, however the collective agreement should not be a barrier to becoming competitive."