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Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison needs questions answered before he can pass judgment on the city’s use of external consultants — despite a bill that exceeded $18 million in 2015.

Atchison said he will ask those questions at Monday afternoon’s finance committee meeting, when a report will be tabled that says the city spent $18.63 million on outside consultants.

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The City of Saskatoon’s chief financial officer, Kerry Tarasoff, issued a public letter to citizens Thursday evening, saying the difference between this city and others lies in how it reports on consultants, not in how much it spends.

The amount appears to be vastly more than other cities pay for external expertise. The City of Regina, for example, spent $11.33 million over six years from 2009 to 2015. The most the City of Toronto paid for consultants for the years 2010 to 2014 was $18.3 million in 2012, according to its website, which is still less than Saskatoon in 2015.