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However, the City of Saskatoon’s chief financial officer said residents are receiving good value for the money and it’s cheaper to hire experts when you need them rather pay for permanent full-time staff.

“It’s very cost effective,” Kerry Tarasoff said in an interview this week.

According to a report on its way to Monday’s finance committee meeting, the city spent just under $16 million on consultants for capital projects and another $2.68 million for operations. The report defines a consultant as a professional who is contracted to offer expert advice.

The report is a response to criticism of the city’s use of consultants in January by veteran Coun. Pat Lorje, who said city hall was becoming “consultant crazy.”

“My jaw dropped,” Lorje said in an interview Wednesday after seeing the report. “I knew that things were getting a little out of hand, but I had no idea. Why don’t we just privatize the entire city?”

Tarasoff said he could not account for the vast difference between Saskatoon and other cities like Toronto and Regina. Saskatoon did, however, contract out some services like internal auditing and included it on the list of consultants, he said. The city paid internal auditing consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers $213,000 in 2015.

Tarasoff said different cities may define consulting in different ways, making comparisons difficult.

“You need the expertise,” he said. “You need the information. You need advice. We don’t have it. To me, there’s a risk if you don’t do it. Are we prepared to take on that risk? No, I think we’re prepared to spend a little money and get advice that’s going to be professional, and it fills a void that we don’t have.”