VOTE JOHN DACOMBE FOR COURTENAY COUNCIL

Consultants

Most governments at all levels spend far too much on outside consultants, something I saw firsthand in my career, and I see right here in Courtenay.

Sometimes consultants are necessary, especially when they provide an expertise or service not available in-house, like a legal opinion, or technical expertise from a professional designation like an RPBio.

But we have highly skilled and trained staff here at the City of Courtenay – we do not need long, expensive, unnecessary consultant reports for almost every issue coming in front of Council. This is a waste of tax dollars and contributes to the excess of information being dumped into Council members’ laps – 1000 page-plus briefing binders some weeks.

Here’s just six examples from the City and CVRD (which City taxpayers help fund) where the expense is questionable (and, to be clear, this isn't on the consultants, who are doing what they were hired for.)

• the contract that failed to find us an RV dump station: this is the responsibility of managers from the various CV local governments;

• public opinion polls that polled 300 residents out of 30,000: first, this is a sample size which has no qualitative value, and I don't believe a small city like Courtenay needs public opinion polling anyway;

• the consultant who chaired meetings for eight years: this is something I have never seen anywhere, ever. Chairing meetings is a fundamental duty of managers;

• the new permissive tax exemption policy deferred until the new Council: Why are we hiring consultants to draft reports for the next Council? If the next Council wants to hire a consultant for this, let the next Council do it. (I would vote against it.)

• The long, detailed 2025 report regarding replacing the outdoor pool: This followed a lengthy "aquatic needs strategy" in 2023 (from different consultants), so appears to be largely redundant, but should have led to the seminal question - who is going to pay for a new outdoor pool?;

• The three year long strategic cultural plan (completed in 2025): This culminated in a 163 page long report, and followed another lengthy "cultural services report" in 2019, which also appears to be strategic. Culture is important, but this is overkill for a small city of under 30,000 people. We're not Vancouver.

Ending unnecessary, premature, or redundant consultants will save at least $100k/year, but I am confident much more.