The city is getting a taste of what’s to come in the final core services review update. The final draft is calling out the high taxes in Timmins, saying we pay more than Sudbury and the Soo, and they are likely to get higher. The lead on the review, Oscar Poloni, says there is a lack of accountability in the city.
He says there is an inconsistent monitoring and reporting on use of public funds. Some departments have to come to city council to report on overages for capital projects, and some don’t. Poloni says there is no way to hold the city accountable when those funds are used inefficiently. For example, he found two major expenses that didn’t provide value to the city. Poloni refers to major expenses as several hundreds of thousands of dollars. That spending was for technology that wasn’t used, and fixing damaged infrastructure. He says in both cases no one was held accountable.
Poloni also raised significant concerns over the city’s organizational structure. He says it’s too big and too broad, and control over the municipality is getting lost. The final report is being released on Election Day, October 19th.
More of the final draft is online, click here and scroll down to item 2A.