17 of 18 Toronto Water projects finished late in last 5 years: auditor general
CBC
All but one of Toronto Water’s infrastructure upkeep projects completed between January 2020 and March 2025 was finished later than originally planned, according to a new report from the city’s auditor general that lays out several issues in the way the city’s sewer system is kept in working shape.
In those five years, there were 18 projects overseen by the city division, largely concerning sewer infrastructure upkeep. Most of the 17 late projects were delayed by a month to a year, while a pump station project was held up for nearly four years, the report before the audit committee Wednesday says.
When the auditor general's office looked into these delays, it found that requests to extend a project’s completion date weren’t always backed up by proper documentation.
It also found there is no centralized system to track project delays, analyze their trends or identify systemic root causes. When delays happened, the consultants and city weren’t conducting root cause analysis to see if they could have been avoided, the report says.
“The whole summary is that there needs to be improved contract management of these projects and better oversight of the consultants and the contractors,” Tara Anderson, the city’s auditor general told the committee of councillors Wednesday.
“Many of the recommendations would be relevant for other city divisions, agencies and corporations managing capital projects.”
Toronto Water supports all the recommendations made by the auditor general to improve on these concerns, Lou Di Gironimo, the division’s general manager, said at the committee Wednesday.
“Going through the audit was very helpful in identifying the need for us to update a lot of our procedures and our manuals that we use, because we haven’t done that for some time,” Di Gironimo said.
His division says delays usually happened because of things like unforeseen work site conditions, including conflict with other ongoing city projects, as well as authorized changes to the scope of work.
All this matters, Anderson writes, because sewer systems play a critical role in making sure Toronto’s wastewater is treated and its stormwater gets properly drained or diverted to waterways. Keeping everything in a state of good repair makes sure residents and businesses have a functioning sewer system.
The delays outlined in the report raise the risk of underpass flooding, property damage or potential environmental contamination, the auditor writes. Anderson notes the hold ups can also expose the city to “significant financial risks,” but ultimately 16 of the 18 projects were completed on budget.
One of the projects with budgetary issues was the pump station work delayed by almost four years. Material and supply price increases, plus additional consultant fees, tallied up to $2.85 million. Plus, a $3.5 million claim is being disputed on that project between the contractor and city.
On the same project, Toronto Water was overcharged $122,781 because a consultant didn’t catch when five change orders were priced higher than a contractually agreed to mark-up limit.
The city has taken action to start recovering that money, Di Gironimo told the committee Wednesday.
As his flight departed from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport en route to Kuwait via Istanbul, Canadian crypto fugitive Andean Medjedovic was unaware that his globe-trotting lifestyle would soon be halted.
One of the largest taxi companies in Toronto will be down to three wheelchair-accessible cabs by the end of March, as advocates and providers say the city is failing to support accessible taxi drivers.
As a deep freeze continues to envelop southwestern Ontario at the same time municipalities deal with a pressing shortage of road salt, there's a renewed focus on finding different ways to melt road ice.
Dave Lawson is a proud Canadian who has bumper stickers that say "Canada is not for sale." He's fed up with grocery products plastered with maple leaves and patriotic logos that turn out to be American imports.
The Town of Badger has issued an evacuation order for some residents as water levels on the Exploits River continue to rise.
The head of a national seniors' advocacy organization says protecting nursing home residents from sexual abuse is an important but challenging issue.
New data shows Winnipeg's fire-paramedic service fielded hundreds of reports involving the city's homeless population, but one advocate says she expects that number to go down in light of the city's limits on where encampments can be.
Former students of the Île-à-la-Crosse Boarding School have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the federal government.
Missing baby presumed dead after father charged with killing mother in St. Albert, Alta., police say
A man is facing charges in the death of a young mother in the Edmonton area and the presumed death of their missing nine-month-old daughter.
A school trustee in Prince George, B.C., says she's shaken and scared after being surrounded by police with their guns drawn and then put in handcuffs, in what RCMP say was a case of mistaken identity.
Despite an eleventh hour attempt to secure at least a few more weeks of freedom, a Calgary dentist was handed a three-year prison sentence for a decade-long insurance billing fraud.
Canada Computers & Electronics says a data breach has leaked information about some of its customers, though several say they are unhappy with the scant details the retailer has provided — including how many of them were affected, and when the breach occurred.
The city of Toronto is shutting down a yacht club on the Humber River in Etobicoke that is accused of having negative impacts on the local ecosystem.