The City of Toronto is preparing to unleash pricey management consultants on all departments and agencies, with orders to uncover waste and identify city services ripe for “potential reductions and discontinuation.”

Executive committee is expected to authorize the reviews Monday, kicking off months of painful deliberations to find $775 million in savings and revenue to balance the 2012 operating budget.

The attack on perceived waste, initiated by Mayor Rob Ford and executed by finance staff and $3 million worth of private sector gravy-sniffing bloodhounds, will have three prongs:

• A “core service review” to inventory all city services, their levels and standards, and to decide which are mandated by provincial legislation, which are “core” and which are “discretionary.” The explosive part comes next, when consultants rank “services for potential reductions and discontinuation.” Their recommendations, with a “very ambitious” deadline of late June, could, for example, include closing recreational facilities and city-run nursing homes. There will be public consultations but the ensuing political firestorm is expected to make the recent uproar over TTC route reductions look like a tea party.

• Efficiency studies probing how the city can provide services cheaper and better through “technology and automation, shared service models, service innovation, business process re-engineering and outsourcing.” Recommendations to expand contracting out are virtually guaranteed, setting up a showdown with CUPE Local 416 which has a contract expiring Dec. 31. Offices under the microscope includes court services; facilities; fleet services; parks, forestry and recreation; shelter, housing and support; environmental programs; the TTC; Toronto Public Libraries; and police shared services.

• User fees. City staff will look at each of the more than 1,000 fees that currently raise more than $1.4 billion each year — 70 per cent of it from TTC fares. They will look at the basis of the fees, how much is recovered and identify “additional opportunities for collecting user fees.” A likely proposal is fixed TTC hikes on set dates.

“If anybody doesn’t think there will be controversy out of this, they don’t know the City of Toronto,” says Cam Weldon, the city’s chief financial officer and staff’s budget quarterback.

His staff is poring through “quite a few responses” from management consultants who made detailed applications to be on a roster. Those who make the cut can be called upon for the core service and efficiency reviews, and beyond.

Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, have railed against the city using sole-sourced contracts, arguing money is wasted when there are no competitive bids.

But city documents say bids on assignments will be sought from “one or more of the roster firms whose experience and expertise match the needs of the assignment.”

Weldon says he expects staff will solicit three bids on each job, but allowed that for specialized work it could be two or even one.

“I can’t think of a situation where it’ll be one but it’s possible,” he says. “Is that sole-source? It’s in the eye of the beholder but I don’t think so,” because the firms will have already competed to get on the roster.